Write on the Edge

By Ron Carey

Stories and poems from The Limerick Writers’ Centre Creative Writing Course 2022

• Language: English
• Publisher: Limerick Writers Centre
• Release date: Nov 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005985707

Ron Carey

Ron Carey was born in Limerick and lives in Dublin. He is a poet and a creative writing facilitator. Ron only started writing poetry seriously in his sixties. Since then he has been a prize winner and finalist in many international poetry competitions. He received Special Commendation in the Patrick Kavanagh Awards. He has a Diploma in Creative Writing from the Open University and was awarded a Masters in Creative Writing at the University of South Wales. His poetry collection DISTANCE was a shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection UK and Ireland 2016. His second book of poetry Racing Down the Sun (Revival Press) was launched in 2018. Since 2016 he has been running creative writing courses in Limerick and Dublin.

Book preview

Write on the Edge

Stories and poems from The Limerick Writers’ Centre

Creative Writing Course 2022

Curated by Ron Carey

Copyright © The Limerick Writers’ Centre 2022

The stories and poems remain the copyright of the individual authors.

First published in Ireland by

The Limerick Writers’ Centre

c/o The Umbrella Project,

78 O’Connell, Limerick, Ireland

www.limerickwriterscentre.com

www.facebook.com/limerickwriterscentre

All rights reserved

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

Book Design: Lotte Bender.

Cover Image: Greg Carey

Anthology Curator: Ron Carey

E-book Formatting|: Máire Baragry

Managing Editor: Dominic Taylor

A CIP catalogue number for this publication is available from The British Library

"The delight in writing is the surprise of remembering something I didn’t know I knew." – Robert Frost

Foreword

Since I began working with Dominic Taylor and the Limerick Writers’ Centre in 2015, I have helped to produce a number of wonderful anthologies based on creative writings from the course. With each anthology, new talent emerges and experienced writers reach new heights. Still, the amazing creativity of these writers and poets has never failed to surprise and delight. And this anthology is up there with the best.

Within these pages you will find a world of beauty and struggle, a world of tough decisions, of overwhelming goodness and friendship. Of course there is sadness, but in the end there is laughter and forgiveness. In fact, it is your world, brought to you by the gifted writers and poets who came together to produce this fine anthology and who were part of my life for a short six weeks.

In Write on the Edge, you will read how a mother feeds her children more than food. How a lonely old man can find solace with a mongrel dog. How families touch across time and space. How teenagers help each other through trauma. How those in need find that there such a thing as the kindness of strangers. And many more wonderful stories and poems for you to discover.

It has been a privilege to work with so many talented, generous and good natured people. And as with every course, I find that I always learn more than the participants.

Thank you all so much for your terrific contributions. I wish you the very best for the future.

Good luck and good writing.

Ron Carey 22/10/2022

Contents

Molly’s Remarkable Day

Ann McHugh

A Changed Landscape

Maggie Enright

When I Was A Child

Rosanne Fitzgerald

Haiku

Exterior Darkness

Charlotte Murphy

Daddy’s Favourite

Anne O’Neill

Dinner at Seven

Elaine Doyle

Karma, a Tired Lady, and Three Pints of Guinness

Barbara Hartigan

Child

Peter Joy

Jude Juniper

Letter to Harry

Maureen Glover

Rumi and I

Love In A Mist

Hazel Espey

Snap-Chat

Róisín Bugler

His Space

Haiku

John Kennedy

Unrequited Love

Tom McElligott

Haka

Raylene O’Loughlin

Sputnik

Pat McLoughlin

Samhain

Last Year’s Picture

Pam Muller

The Flood

Empty Nest

Yvonne O’Callaghan Stephen

A Different Safe Cross Code

Technology in My Kitchen

Vera Shaw

My Conundrum

John Slattery

When Pieces Come Together

Margaret Corr

Biographic Notes

About Ron Carey

About the Limerick Writers’ Centre

Molly’s Remarkable Day

Ann McHugh

She was running into the waves, a squealing little boy clinging to each hand. They flinched, shrieking in unison, warm bodies acclimatising to the cold Atlantic. Looking into the horizon, terror pierced her heart. Her baby daughter was bobbing on the mane of white horse waves, their pounding hooves breaking onto the shore. The baby was no more.

Molly sprang up in the bed. A scream gurgled back down her throat. Eight-ten am. The clock face luminous in the December darkness. ‘Oh God, another Covid nightmare,’ she sighed. ‘Hope Johnny and Adam are safe.’ She blessed herself, familiar rose petal curtains pulling her back into the room.

Opening the landing window, the cold air that rushed in made her feel alive. She began to tiptoe downstairs, a skill mastered when the boys were babies, padding lightly on the creaky step that always seemed to giggle when it woke the rascals. Imagine I never got that fixed.

Sean smiled from his frame on the hall table. Johnny under one arm and Adam on his shoulders. ’Hope you’re looking out for us up there,’ she mouthed to the heavens. She swept a finger over their faces. Johnny the happy wanderer, traipsing round the globe. In Vancouver for the foreseeable, Adam forever her baby, way down in Melbourne, his own baby on the way before Christmas. Casting an eye over the plane ticket that should have taken her to Australia, she contemplated how Covid had upended humanity’s best laid plans.

She