Thurles Information

Time For The Girls

From the pen of that wonderful Poet, Songwriter, Radio & TV Presenter Pam Ayres (MBE)

I’m normally a social girl, I love to meet my mates
But lately with the virus here, we can’t go out the gates.

You see, we are the ‘oldies’ now. We need to stay inside
If they haven’t seen us for a while, they’ll think we’ve upped and died.

They’ll never know the things we did, before we got this old
There wasn’t any Facebook, so not everything was told.

We may seem sweet old ladies, who would never be uncouth
But we grew up in the 60’s – If you only knew the truth!

There was sex and drugs and rock ‘n roll, the pill and miniskirts
We smoked, we drank, we partied and were quite outrageous flirts.

Then we settled down, got married and turned into someone’s mum,
Somebody’s wife, then nana, who on earth did we become?

We didn’t mind the change of pace, because our lives were full
But to bury us before we’re dead, is like a red rag to a bull!

So here you find me stuck inside for 4 weeks, maybe more
I finally found myself again, then I had to close the door!

It didn’t really bother me, I’d while away the hour
I’d bake for all the family, but I’ve got no flaming flour!

Now Netflix is just wonderful, I like a gutsy thriller
I’m swooning over Idris, or some random sexy killer.

At least I’ve got a stash of booze for when I’m being idle
There’s wine and whiskey, even gin, if I’m feeling suicidal!

So, let’s all drink to lockdown, to recovery and health
And hope this awful virus doesn’t decimate our wealth.

We’ll all get through the crisis and be back to join our mates
Just hoping I’m not far too wide to fit through the flaming gates.
END

Remember, tomorrow April 30th is Poetry Day Ireland.

Why not take some time to bring the joy of poetry into the lives of children and young people, with resources that will help them read, write and listen to great poetry.

Writing Poetry

Poetry Ireland creates excellent resource packs to support poetry exploration on Poetry Day and all year round. It is well worth checking out their back catalogue of Poetry Day resource packs.
Their 2019 pack is available by clicking HERE.
This pack provides many creative ways to get pupils writing different types and styles of poetry.
Other resource packs worth checking out are available HERE and HERE and HERE.

Reading & Listening to Poetry

Performing poetry with appropriate expression, rhythm and pace is an enviable skill, learned by listening to others read poetry.
One fantastic website, founded to inspire young learners by enabling them to listen to poetry, is ‘The Children’s Poetry Archive’ available HERE.

Treasured poets for young learners, (and older ones too), that you can listen to, include Spike Milligan, Michael Rosen and Roald Dahl. Poetry is explored and categorised across type, poet, theme and age. It certainly is one website that every parent, teacher and pupil should check out.

We hope these resources will help enhance your Poetry Day tomorrow and enable you to enjoy poetry all year round, with young and old.