Inspiring creativity and encouraging personal and social change through the arts

The Prison Arts Foundation is as important as it is unique. Thanks to our pioneering work with people with convictions lives are being transformed and patterns of behaviour changed for good.

Our team of experienced professional artists working across the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland are offering people with convictions a life-line, helping to improve their creative and communications skills, which is key to personal and social development, building self-confidence and unlocking people’s potential.

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Writing (Poetry)

Time

It’s an unseen verse of an endless rhyme

Without it we cannot even begin the first line.

It can be described as a sleepless dream

Even though it’s not heard, not even felt, or seen.

We all feel the urge to look at a clock

See its face and hands, listen to its’ tick-tock.

It’s an unfelt thirst for a drink so fine

Without it the grape never becomes the wine.

It can be described as heat from the suns’ beam

Even though it’s not heard, not even felt, or seen.

We all feel the urge to look at a lock

Hear the key as it turns, as it turns, click-clock.

It’s an unheard voice in a pantomime

Without it we’ll never hear through the grapevine.

It can be described as the “I” in team

Even though it’s not heard, not even felt, or seen.

I really doubt it

Even if we wrote about it

We can never really understand time.

HMP Magilligan

1st Prize Poetry Getting Started, Listowel Writing in Prison Awards, 2020

First Time Entrant Award for Poetry, Koestler Arts, 2020

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