The Mothership
Hello and welcome to Friday. I don’t feel like doing my usual cold open-esque introductions. I just want to get to the main talking point. I have a poem I would like to share that I don’t think I have shared on here before. Nonetheless, I am sharing it today.
As promised on Monday, I have a story to share. I was at Therapy Sessions Wexford in Wexford Arts Centre last week. It was a lot of fun. Therapy Sessions is one of the many events put on by First Fortnight every year. It is a night of spoken word and music, and I have always done my best to attend. Not only to support the MC and curator Stephen James Smith, who has always been generous with his time to me, but also as an opportunity to do a bit of spoken word myself.
I rocked up like I usually do. I bumped into the same people and said hello. I got a drink and a snack, as I always do. Then I saw a familiar face whom I hadn’t seen in years. The man’s name is Ollie Breslin, and he is the former Artistic Director of Waterford Youth Arts. Waterford Youth Arts was and still is a place near and dear to my heart. I attended drama, film and creative writing classes there as a teenager. It was where I learnt that I may have a knack for this writing thing. It's where I realised I can be creative and have fun doing it. It’s where I found my tribe, as they say. It showed me that the arts are a viable career path, even though they may be incredibly difficult. We are still here, though, aren’t we?
All these memories and more came flooding back when I saw Ollie, whom I haven’t seen in over 10 years at this point. We had a nice catch-up, and he told me he recently left his position in Waterford Youth Arts to pursue other things. Waterford Youth Arts turned 50 last year. That’s when I remembered I wrote a poem to commemorate the occasion. It's called The Mothership, and it goes like this:
The Mothership
We drove through the city
And there she was
“There it is!” I said
“What?” my mother asked
“The mothership” I replied
That stone arch is where home was
It’s where a part of my heart still is
I didn’t think my kind
Frequented this town
People who make art
No matter the cost
But those people gathered there
And I found my tribe
Finally
It made art beautiful
It made art attainable
It’s easy to be yourself there
It’s easy to feel at home there
The mothership is what I call it
I don’t know why
I guess it’s where I saw home
I guess it’s where I learnt to be me
The mothership is still standing
And long may it be.
It’s an important time in our lives when we realise “oh yeah. That’s the thing I want to do with my life and for the rest of it.” Waterford Youth Arts gave me that realisation, and I am grateful for it. That’s enough from me. Thank you for reading. Long live the arts. Thank you for your time.
