Llên Pawb | Lit Reach : A Junge of Ideas

A JUNGLE

OF IDEAS

This poetry collection is the work of five pupils from Abersychan Comprehensive School; Megan, Molly, Shania, Bethany and Morgan over a few weeks of the summer term 2019, who worked with poet and performer Mike Church and illustrator Osian Grifford in a series of creative workshops. This project, which provided a platform for young people to express themselves and have their voices heard, was delivered in partnership between Literature Wales and Inspire to Achieve.

Strong communication skills and aspirations for young people will help positively change the futures of our communities, and the publication of this pamphlet is an important example of how creativity can help change lives.

Literature Wales is the National Company for the development of the literature art-form in Wales. Our mission is to inspire communities, develop writers, and celebrate Wales’ literary culture by: increasing the accessibility and impact of creative writing for participants in Wales; enabling early career writers to engage with opportunities to hone and diversify their skills; and strengthening the range, reach and reputation of Wales’ writers. This will deliver a Wales where literature empowers, improves and brightens lives.

We aim to inspire some of our most marginalised individuals and communities through active participation in literature. Some of our recent participants include prisoners, young carers, asylum seekers and mental health service users.

This project was delivered as part of our Llên Pawb | Lit Reach community engagement initiative. www.literaturewales.org Inspire to Achieve is an ESF funded project which targets young people in secondary school who need some help towards reaching their potential and provides individual support depending on the young people’s needs. Inspire to Achieve is a regional project whose partners are local authorities in the South Wales Valleys; local FE colleges and Careers Wales.

THE POEMS The door My head Open your mind When I leave here 1 When I leave here 2 When I leave here 3 When I leave here 4 When I leave here 5 Where do ideas come from?

The door Go and open the door Maybe inside you’ll find some good luck Maybe you’ll travel back in time Or swim in dreams of chocolate Go on open the door You might release a million starving unicorns Or find five minutes peace Perhaps you’ll find all the lost socks of the universe Go on open the door It might be a hiding place for lost souls Or you’ll see a giant high heeled shoe You might find yourself sliding down to the beach Go on open the door There might be friends who never argue Or a homeless man who needs love It may be a creaky door to the basement Go on open the door You know you want to Even it’s a jungle of ideas out there Go on open it Nothing can stay a mystery forever

My head My head explodes with misfitting memories All singing songs And someone is cooking a pie There is a door banging shut There is a clock constantly ticking Tick Tock Tick Tock People are pointing and shouting Making her stray from the path She loved that she was so different She might be ugly, she might be big Bullies might call her a ‘pig’ In her head she is nothing No ideas, no thoughts No escape There is a clown with a machine gun And a host of homeless bananas in the bin There is a purple upside down river Wild flowers are on the mountain top Smelling of curry With sticky toffee pudding Seeping down from the light sockets There’s a whirlwind of affection And a tornado of tasks Waiting patiently to be done Do walls have eyes?

Do tables have feelings?

There is a bedtime story for the end of the world I love my head Full of potent potential Go on dive into your head And release ideas forever...

Open your mind Open your mind why not?

You may find a baby in a cot You may see your life go by in a blur Or maybe in a land that time forgot Open your mind to the artist that never stops The girl with the strained and sad face The playground that screams and shouts The lost family that’s passed away The imposter in the mirror Open your mind to never ending possibility A mouthful of chewed jaffa cakes Noises coming from upstairs Tables hanging from a ceiling Bananas falling from the sky Children dancing in the slanting rain Go on open your mind If you don’t know one else will Lose the crowd, find yourself The cheeky monster Into the chasm that takes you down To a dead spider and a grieving fly To an argument about what and why Open your mind I dare you After all….what have you got to lose?

When I leave here When I leave here I want to be an artist who takes in the view I want to marry the one I love When I leave here I want a decent job I’m going to think about the things I’ve lost The memories and people who come and go I want to be a mum with sticky oors and happy kids I want the ones I have to always be my world I want all this when I leave here

By Morgan

When I leave here When I leave here I will go and get pizza I will find a missing person Someday I will be a person with no hair And glasses on my head When I leave here I will say hello to everyone I will pray to my oven And find infinity itself I will become confused And jump up and down on teachers I might climb Mount Everest Or maybe meet with green eyed monsters I will leave here through a window And with slime in my toes I will fly on the back of a rhino to the ground floor And get myself a wooden leg But whatever happens I will leave here

By Bethany

When I leave here When I leave here I might become a wrestler I want to ďŹ nd a good man who will love me forever I want to make an endless supply of slime I will know that one day your love will go away But memories will always be in your heart I want to swim in a chocolate pool And miss my friends before meeting them all again I want to be a drama queen And eat ice cream forever With a lollipop every day for the rest of my life When I leave here I want to cook up a storm

By Molly

When I leave here

When I leave here I want to leave forever And I want to leave next week I want to climb a delicious mountain covered in chocolate I want there to be broken biscuits all over the road I want to forget all about chickens And to find out all about love When I leave here I’ll say ‘Good morning’ to everyone And love everyone including you When I leave here I want to fly with animals And disappear into the distance on a cookie biscuit When I leave here I want to leave forever

By Shania

When I leave here When I leave here I want to write my very own joke book I want to climb a mountain and pick wild strawberries Then eat them covered in sugar and chocolate When I leave here I want to y in space like an astronaut Or at least see a ying pig When I leave here I would just love to run wild

By Megan

Where do ideas come from?

Where do ideas come from?

Is it from blank sheets of paper like this one?

Or do they begin in the head and heart?

Does it help if you’ve been sleeping all day?

Can you find them blowing in the leaves Or can they occur in claps of thunder?

Will they come from teachers laughing too much?

Do they exist in a raised eyebrow?

Or do they come upon you when you’re clipping toe nails?

Where do ideas come from?

Is it when you daydream in lessons?

Do they exist in the odour of garlic?

Or the smell of rotten socks Are they memories of a previous life?

Or do they appear in the steam of a sauna Where do ideas come from?

Is it when you’re thinking of things to write?

Do they come from the dark side of the moon?

Do they begin with love?

Where do ideas come from?

I really haven’t got a clue….