My Hope One Hundred Years Later

by Aoife Freeman

My hope tastes like wild berries

Sitting on a bush.

My hope sounds like infant laughter 

Sounding out in the distance.

My hope looks like a happy family 

Chatting to each other.

My hope smells like fresh air 

Wafting in through the window.

My hope feels like water 

Slipping through my fingers.

My Hope comes from us all 

In peace and joy one hundred years later.

Written by Aoife Freeman, as part of Poetry as Commemoration workshops led by Terry McDonagh in Castlerea Community School, Roscommon, in  November 2022. Transition Year students were invited to write a poem in response to Terry McDonagh’s poem ‘My Freedom One Hundred Years Later’, written in commemoration of the War of Independence.