Catlin

Pick 5 words from the poem

Catrin

I can remember you, child,

As I stood in a hot, white

Room at the window watching

The people and cars taking

Turn at the traffic lights.

I can remember you, our first

Fierce confrontation, the tight

Red rope of love which we both

Fought over. It was square

Environmental blank, disinfected

Of paintings or toys. I wrote

All over the walls with my

Words, coloured the clean squares

With the wild, tender circles

Of our struggle to become

Separate. We want, we shouted,

To be two, to be ourselves.

Neither won nor lost the struggle

In the glass tank clouded with feelings

Which changed us both. Still I am fighting

You off, as you stand there

With your straight, strong, long

Brown hair and your rosy

Defiant glare, bringing up

From the heart's pool that old rope,

Tightening about my life,

Trailing love and conflict,

As you ask may you skate

In the dark, for one more hour.

Bring the elements together to write your own poem

Describe a time

• someone worried about you
• someone wouldn't let you do something you wanted to do
• you had a conflict with someone
• you defied someone
• you wanted to be independent
• you felt controlled or over protected

Include similes and metaphors to describe your emotions

What emotion did you feel at the time?

make a simile or metaphor to describe how you felt.

Describe a specific time or times

Letter to my mother

I want you to not get angry

At the little things,

Like letting my hair down,

As if it is chocolate that boys will eat.

I wish you could understand me,

That the three tongues we speak,

Could build a fish plait, to hold us,

So our roots don’t tangle and form knots.

I would like you to look at me,

As if I’m still playing with dolls.

Your love speaks through forgiveness

For once again I want to be your little princess.

Leisha Ijaz, 14 years old

Use the sentence starters if you get stuck

I can remember ...

As I ...

I can remember you ...

We want ...

Still I am ...

Letter to ...

I want ...

As if ...

I wish ...

I would like ...

As if

Your

Write a 'How to' list for dealing with the time you have described.

How to avoid shouting at your mother

Start listening to a mindfulness audio book

Be aware of the irony of listening to a mindfulness audio book

While driving, while having a bath, while waiting in the car park

To pick up mum’s drugs from the Castlederg pharmacist.

Try to work out what she wants before she says it

Because by the time she struggles for the words

She will be so frustrated that she will have tried to get up to do it.

Sneak off to write poems.

Do Yoga in front of her, she likes it when you do that,

She knows it helps you, like her daily rosary.

She knows the anger of the Garrity that courses through both of you.

Know when it’s ok to tell her your fears, your frustrations,

And when to smile and pretend it’s all fine, know she knows it's not.

Hug often

When you snap, which you will do often, apologise quickly,

Know when you have to leave the room

But know this is a violent act and not to leave lightly,

Do it softly without slamming.

Know that you both cry easily and this is a gift

Because many have dams bigger than Ballyshannon

And their emotions are concrete blocks they can’t lift.

Be gentle, like she tells you to be

Remember she is cursed with the same verbal diarrhea

And it flows unconsciously and you both have to work on that.

Know she taught you what frustration sounds like

In it’s deep and guttural fullness, that garbling of unsaid words,

Actions, deeds that have been taken from her

Like the willow tree at Lover’s Retreat,

Torn down to make way for that 70’s house.

Accept she is the best mother, that you’re lucky to have her

That her love is the only love for you.

How to ...

Start ...

Try ...

Do ...

... knows

Know when ...

And when to ...

When you

Do it ...

Be ...

Remember ...

Know ...

Like ...

Accept ...