A Dublin-based poet went viral this year for his poems about “middle-class suburbia” where everyone is “so cramped together”.
Mikey Cullen is a teacher in Gaelcholáiste Reachrann, but has always enjoyed writing.
“I've been writing my whole life but just this last year I've started sharing it more and performing,” she told The Pat Kenny Show.
His poem Home was inspired by his own home in a housing estate in Beaumont.
“I was out having a smoke with two friends last year in one of the lad’s back gardens,” he said.
“One of the lads turns around after just being down in the country and said we’re all on top of each other here.
“We’re all so cramped together... the house to the back of mine looks into my kitchen.
“That tripped something in my head and i started taking my environment in more and I took stuff for granted.
“The line about chipper and Chinese and pubs – it's a real middle-class suburbia but it’s quiet.”
Performing in Dublin
Mr Cullen wrote the poem in Easter, but didn’t perform it live until last December, where it was recorded and went viral online.
“That went around the internet and went viral and since then it’s been onwards and upwards,” he said.
Following the poem's release online, the group that he performed the poem for Seanoíche invited him to be the part of a Guinness campaign celebrating art in Ireland.
“The first [event] was in the Guinness Storehouse and I performed in that gaff,” he said.
“At the moment, I love teaching and I'm very lucky I have so many different sources of fulfilment and joy in my life.”
Extract from Home by Mikey Cullen:
Restrictive , refined and stifling
Is the cage that I call my home .
The bars are
repetitive in nature
And symmetrical .
Concrete .
Concrete .
Grey .
Grey.
Semi detached –
As far as the eye can see ,
As carbon copied estate after estate
After yet another estate and identical row of shops ,
Vended by and to cater the ‘essentials’ of the local populace it comprised of :
A pub , bookies , newsagent , Chinese , chipper and any beautician facility or barbers take your pick .
Concrete road connecting identical rows of houses ,
identical rows of carefully constructed green arrangements ;
Life was restricted to these areas .
Listen to the full poem here:
