Holly Ward is a poet and author from Donegal, now based in Maynooth, Kildare. Her contemporary poetry takes inspiration from nature and the female experience. She achieved a first class honour for her BA in English and Anthropology from Maynooth University. Her first poetry pamphlet, Cherry Blossom, won the award for most accomplished creative dissertation of her graduating academic year. She is currently studying in MU for a Master of Arts in Creative Writing, where she is working on her second pamphlet.

Quiet Moment

My breath escapes my lips and touches yours,
I long to kiss the clouds which leave your mouth.
I fidget with the fabric of my blouse,
my ears warmed by the fabric of your words.

Our footsteps decrease,
the traffic rings.
The sweetest thing,
beneath a tree of peace.

We marvel at the night for a short time,
I marvel on the beauty of the stars,
and you concur not of their grace but mine.

Temporary Town

Hazy pale hue, dark towering silhouettes.
Forest’s forces, so powerful.
The stars burn brighter here.
                                                       A fiery fox
                                                        flashes by.
Forest’s forces, now moving stars.
We are trees in a vast sky, sharing an energy so powerful only the stars themselves can emulate.

Echoes from the otherside

Echoes from the otherside
plague my mind.
The forest speaks
only what it’s told.
A forcefield which
halts any sound uttered
and repels it back for
those to hear again.
Childish screams
are painful, say the trees.

Just a Moment

On a private planet, just us and the stars, shivering, sharing earbuds,
a language of smoke hanging in the sharp air.
moment ends, ends discarded,
silence interrupted, “Goodbye stars”.
The door locks.
Back to earth we depart.