OBSERVATIONS ON the weather has long since been an Irish pastime, and judging by the summer we have just experienced commentators on the vagaries of the elements have had a field day, but for one busy Gorey-based mum-of-one, the existence of nature has been an inspiration to bring out the poet in her.
Grace O’Reilly’s individual style of expression is brought to light in the poems published here for the first time where references to the seasons drop neatly into appropriate train of thought.
Living at Clonattin Estate with her husband, Simon, and 18 months old daughter, Olivia, who has also been also been a source of inspiration, Grace has had a life-long love of writing and uses every spare parenting moment to commit her thoughts to print.
“I have been writing since I was a child. My family have always encouraged me and my old school teacher, Mrs McCabe, influenced my love of writing when I was only eight,” said Grace, who grew up in the seaside town ofBray.
‘The Rainbow’ was written almost twenty years ago; ‘Life and Seasons’ when she was only 15 years old, and ‘End of Summer’ a decade ago.
Her talent surfaced at an early age and she feels that the poems written all those years ago have matured in tangent with the current behaviour appurtenant to nature itself.
Grace is always inventing poetry, however, her writing talents stretch further than that as she harbours ambition to complete a novel and a children’s collection of stories, both of which she has already started working on.
Her new habitat since April is bound to play a part in her future writing too. “In September I am planning to join the Gorey Writer’s Group,” she promises with a smile that clearly reflects her passion for writing and her determination to succeed.
A Wintery Summer’s Day inIreland
By Grace O’Reilly
The cool backsplash of rain
Dances on my face
Spraying my cheeks
And cooling me down
For it’s a humid summer day
InIreland
Not sunny
But dull and grey
And Wintery
Ironic
The Rainbow
By Grace O’Reilly
In the deep, dark, blue sky
After the rain had fallen
All across the bluish sky
Lots of colours clash together
It’s almost like someone got a paintbrush and painted across the sky
Blues and greens, yellows and oranges, purples and pinks
Just imagine the rainbow was a slide
And there’s a pot of gold waiting for you at the end
Life and the Seasons
By Grace O’Reilly
I am 15 just gone into Spring
Do not know what’s ahead of me
That’s a scary thing
My sister’s ahead in Summer
My parents further on in Autumn
And I am just sitting here with lots of thoughts in my head
My Granny is in Winter
Skin weathered like the trees
‘Why is life like this’? I ask
Life by age and months are these
Do we go to Heaven
And repeat like the months do again?
Or is it just all over
With no point to the word ‘Amen’
End of Summer
By Grace O’Reilly
An end of Summer breeze
Blows warm across my face and legs
My hair whips around like a flag on a windy day
Sitting on fresh cut grass, I write and wait
Summer’s ending and Autumn’s beginning
Weather confused
Cold, warm, cold, warm.
