Poetry by Ange Roy

     Jochen Spieker CC




END AND BEGINNING
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There are so many things
So many, and so little time, 
A time I’d rather use wisely, 
Not building up a fantasy. 

Oh! Dear you, dear me
It’s not half of what I make it,
And yet there is a sense of panic,
Of obligation, of emergency. 

Surrender, yes, surrender
To life, to rain, 
To a world of pain. 

Surrender, oh, yes, surrender
To love, to tears, 
To a life of fears. 

It’s grey and dark
It’s menacing, the thunder, 
And the mountains of wonder. 

It’s a storm, a tornado,
Grounds you don’t even want to know.
There’s adversity, hunger, 
Uncertainty and danger. 

It goes up and down
Bruises you,
Throws you onto the ground. 

The trials are endless
Just look at me, my face, 
Sweating, breathless, 
Crawling on uneven ground, 
And in my pocket, 
Not a single pound. 

Suddenly, there it is
The beauty, the light, the sun,
Someone is calling you “Hun”.

Because that’s the thing:
As long as you keep going, 
There will be an end,
And a new beginning. 

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Ange is a 37-year-old woman who grew up in Burgundy, France. She fell in love with writing when she was 6 and with English when she was 16. It’s been a very complicated and tumultuous love story ever since. 
She studied English Literature and Culture for a year and left to be an au pair in Canada before finishing it. Sitting on a bench and taking notes was not for her, neither was doing what she was told or ‘supposed to do’. 
She lived in France and Poland, and travelled to the US, Mexico and Canada, falling madly in love with New York in 2014. She travelled to discover the world, experience new cultures, meet people, and find a place where she felt she belonged. If you dig deeper, however, and were to find yourself talking to her on a rainy Sunday evening, with the fire on and a glass of Chablis, you’d hear her tell you that she travelled because she was running away. She ran away, a lot, because she was bored, scared or broken-hearted. 
Ange moved to Ireland almost 9 years ago: she stayed for a woman and left 6 years later, because of that same woman. She travelled to Australia, Japan, France, Germany, Denmark and Poland, and then came back to the place she had been calling home for 7 years: Ireland. She came back, moved back to her small village in West Cork, and sat down to write some of the poetry she shared with you. She then proceeded to write a book, which she is currently working to get published.

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