Poems booklet Junge of Ideas

A JUNGLE 

OF IDEAS

This poetry collection is the work of five pupils from Abersychan 

Comprehensive School; Megan, Molly, Shania, Bethany and 

Morgan over a few weeks of the summer term 2019, who 

worked with poet and performer Mike Church and illustrator 

Osian Grifford in a series of creative workshops. This project, 

which provided a platform for young people to express 

themselves and have their voices heard, was delivered in 

partnership between Literature Wales and Inspire to Achieve. 

Strong communication skills and aspirations for young people 

will help positively change the futures of our communities, 

and the publication of this pamphlet is an important example of 

how creativity can help change lives. 

Literature Wales is the National Company for the development 

of the literature art-form in Wales. Our mission is to inspire 

communities, develop writers, and celebrate Wales’ literary 

culture by: increasing the accessibility and impact of creative 

writing for participants in Wales; enabling early career writers 

to engage with opportunities to hone and diversify their skills; 

and strengthening the range, reach and reputation of Wales’ 

writers. This will deliver a Wales where literature empowers, 

improves and brightens lives. 

We aim to inspire some of our most marginalised individuals and 

communities through active participation in literature. Some of 

our recent participants include prisoners, young carers, asylum 

seekers and mental health service users. 

This project was delivered as part of our Llên Pawb | Lit Reach 

community engagement initiative. 

www.literaturewales.org 

Inspire to Achieve is an ESF funded project which targets 

young people in secondary school who need some help towards 

reaching their potential and provides individual support 

depending on the young people’s needs. Inspire to Achieve is a 

regional project whose partners are local authorities in the South 

Wales Valleys; local FE colleges and Careers Wales.

THE POEMS 

The door 

My head 

Open your mind 

When I leave here 1 





Where do ideas come from?

The door 

Go and open the door 

Maybe inside you’ll find some good luck 

Maybe you’ll travel back in time 

Or swim in dreams of chocolate 

Go on open the door 

You might release a million starving unicorns 

Or find five minutes peace 

Perhaps you’ll find all the lost socks of the universe 


It might be a hiding place for lost souls 

Or you’ll see a giant high heeled shoe 

You might find yourself sliding down to the beach 


There might be friends who never argue 

Or a homeless man who needs love 

It may be a creaky door to the basement 


You know you want to 

Even it’s a jungle of ideas out there 

Go on open it 

Nothing can stay a mystery forever

My head 

My head explodes with misfitting memories 

All singing songs 

And someone is cooking a pie 

There is a door banging shut 

There is a clock constantly ticking 

Tick Tock 

Tick Tock 

People are pointing and shouting 

Making her stray from the path 

She loved that she was so different 

She might be ugly, she might be big 

Bullies might call her a ‘pig’ 

In her head she is nothing 

No ideas, no thoughts 

No escape 

There is a clown with a machine gun 

And a host of homeless bananas in the bin 

There is a purple upside down river 

Wild flowers are on the mountain top 

Smelling of curry 

With sticky toffee pudding 

Seeping down from the light sockets 

There’s a whirlwind of affection 

And a tornado of tasks 

Waiting patiently to be done 

Do walls have eyes? 

Do tables have feelings? 

There is a bedtime story for the end of the world 

I love my head 

Full of potent potential 

Go on dive into your head 

And release ideas forever...

Open your mind 

Open your mind why not? 

You may find a baby in a cot 

You may see your life go by in a blur 

Or maybe in a land that time forgot 

Open your mind to the artist that never stops 

The girl with the strained and sad face 

The playground that screams and shouts 

The lost family that’s passed away 

The imposter in the mirror 

Open your mind to never ending possibility 

A mouthful of chewed jaffa cakes 

Noises coming from upstairs 

Tables hanging from a ceiling 

Bananas falling from the sky 

Children dancing in the slanting rain 

Go on open your mind 

If you don’t know one else will 

Lose the crowd, find yourself 

The cheeky monster 

Into the chasm that takes you down 

To a dead spider and a grieving fly 

To an argument about what and why 

Open your mind I dare you 

After all….what have you got to lose?

When I leave here 


I want to be an artist who takes in the view 

I want to marry the one I love 


I want a decent job 

I’m going to think about the things I’ve lost 

The memories and people who come and go 

I want to be a mum with sticky floors and happy kids 

I want the ones I have to always be my world 

I want all this when I leave here 

By Morgan


When I leave here I will go and get pizza 

I will find a missing person 

Someday I will be a person with no hair 

And glasses on my head 


I will say hello to everyone 

I will pray to my oven 

And find infinity itself 

I will become confused 

And jump up and down on teachers 

I might climb Mount Everest 

Or maybe meet with green eyed monsters 

I will leave here through a window 

And with slime in my toes 

I will fly on the back of a rhino to the ground floor 

And get myself a wooden leg 

But whatever happens 

I will leave here 

By Bethany



I might become a wrestler 

I want to find a good man who will love me forever 

I want to make an endless supply of slime 

I will know that one day your love will go away 

But memories will always be in your heart 

I want to swim in a chocolate pool 

And miss my friends before meeting them all again 

I want to be a drama queen 

And eat ice cream forever 

With a lollipop every day for the rest of my life 

When I leave here I want to cook up a storm 

By Molly



I want to leave forever 

And I want to leave next week 

I want to climb a delicious mountain covered in chocolate 

I want there to be broken biscuits all over the road 

I want to forget all about chickens 

And to find out all about love 

When I leave here I’ll say ‘Good morning’ to everyone 

And love everyone including you 

When I leave here I want to fly with animals 

And disappear into the distance on a cookie biscuit 


I want to leave forever 

By Shania



I want to write my very own joke book 

I want to climb a mountain and pick wild strawberries 

Then eat them covered in sugar and chocolate 

When I leave here I want to fly in space like an astronaut 

Or at least see a flying pig 


I would just love to run wild 

By Megan

Where do ideas come from? 


Is it from blank sheets of paper like this one? 

Or do they begin in the head and heart? 

Does it help if you’ve been sleeping all day? 

Can you find them blowing in the leaves 

Or can they occur in claps of thunder? 

Will they come from teachers laughing too much? 

Do they exist in a raised eyebrow? 

Or do they come upon you when you’re clipping toe nails? 


Is it when you daydream in lessons? 

Do they exist in the odour of garlic? 

Or the smell of rotten socks 

Are they memories of a previous life? 

Or do they appear in the steam of a sauna 


Is it when you’re thinking of things to write? 

Do they come from the dark side of the moon? 

Do they begin with love? 


I really haven’t got a clue….

Poems booklet Junge of Ideas

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