Elise Carey-McGibney – Winter’s Magic

Elise Carey LE P&W Children Jan 2019

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Winter’s Magic, poem by Elise Carey-McGibney

Elise Carey-McGibney, twelve years old,  is a first year pupil in Mounthawk Secondary School, Tralee. She was twice runner up in the Trocaire /Poetry Ireland Competition, in 2015 and 2016 and won first place with her poem ‘The Sea of Hope’ in 2018. She also won joint second place in 2016 at Listowel Writers’ Week in 2016 with her poem ‘Magpie’. Elise enjoys art, birdwatching, baking and writing short stories.


Melting fangs of ice
hang from barren branches.
Squirrels crouch
as ducks peck at a frozen lake
with their bills of hope.

The huddled, fluffy ducklings
watch their mother
fail to break the ice.
My cold feet
numb in my boots.

My breath floats into
the icy air,
like a dragon’s puffs
asleep in his lair.
The silent day
grows dark and old,
while new icicles form
glittery and cold.


© Elise Carey-McGibney