CBS Kilkenny Students win Poetry Awards

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Sam and Andrew with their English teacher Mr O'Brien

In April 2018, Kilkenny Education Centre celebrated its twentieth anniversary. As part of this celebration the KEC, in affiliation with Poetry Ireland, organised poetry competitions aimed at students of both primary and post-primary schools across the South-East. The response was enormous. 

We are delighted to announce that two CBS Kilkenny students, Andrew Stone and Sam Cullen, were announced as Award Winners in the senior Fifth and Sixth Year category. 

The award ceremony was held in the Watershed on April 26th 2018, and as the photographs reveal it was quite the celebration. Sam Cullen had the honour of reading his poem, Function, to the full assembly. 

SAM CULLEN

Function

I am lost
in my function
the dumb pain I inflict on myself
rumbles in silence
in the sweaty miasma of a
maths class.

I’m learning to want this.
The enchanted window
hooks my dead eyes
and reawakes the porous crops
of my mind,
and these daydreams sail
like harpooned whales
on the seas of nostalgia for time,
time I wasn’t born in
but born from.

Yes, I’m learning to want this.
I reimagine the various bodies
of the one I love
and pluck the names of children
hoping to one day have,
and I am lost,
cut by the world’s loss
and cleansed by its hope.

Another radiant beam
Slices the window
then another day dies
in poor excuse for this.
My maths teacher tells me
my functions don’t work out.

Andrew Stone

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Called to the front office, Dad late as always. 
Gearbag like a liberator, swaying as I strut down the hall
A sense of freedom beginning to swell
Double French never seemed so far away. 

A sombre smile on my father’s face,
“Ready to go? You can change in the car.”
Westward bound, cruising along a barre motorway
No midday traffic. 

I change into these jeans
Jeans that have soaked with rain, with beer, with tears. 
Jeans that have dropped for a range of reasons 
Jeans that have danced and heard an assault of noise. 

School shoes doubling up as nice shoes
They know the path from class to class. 
They have run from, 
They have run towards. 
Their list of memories is as long as their laces. 

Arriving at the church, late as always
A quiet nod to his family. 
I take my place beside my sister, 
His coffin in plain sight. 
Us two, seated in reverence 

Why did our minds rest on double French? 

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