Poetry Please

Poetry please is an annual event introduced by former Head of English, Mrs Jane Cross to celebrate poetry.

Hosted by the English Department, and supported by performers from Drama, French and Mandarin classes, the evening featured both individual and group performances; it was inspiring to see such a wide range of contributions from senior school students. Whilst some chose to recite well-known verse from established poets, a number of burgeoning young writers read their own carefully crafted poems.

Here are four of the original poems:

Sunflower

I am a sunflower, a little odd I know
I am not like other flowers, my beauty doesn’t grow
I am not as beautiful as a rose, my beauty is hidden beneath me
When a rose attracts a butterfly, I attract a bee
A rose is put in a vase on a table at somebody’s house, I am thrown on the floor ready to be trod on by a mouse
Roses have the perfect body they have a slim tall stem,
However, it is sad to say I don’t fit in with them
My stem is thick, ugly and wide. When people compare me to a rose I want to hide
There is no way I tell myself that I a mere sunflower could ever compare with a flower-like a magnificent rose. A rose brings shame to my existence, when I look at a rose I wonder why I was ever created
A rose is perfect their petals soft and silky and their thorns sharp and slender
A sunflower is a mistake compared to a rose
When people water a rose, they water it with care but when people water me, well that is very rare.
By Vismaya Pillai (Year 9, Rose House)

Kindness

Why do we take so many lives, why do people have to fight for the right to survive
We should have a man on the gates, where all the people who come alive wait.
He’d say welcome to society, we hope you enjoy your stay but don’t try too hard and stay out of the way
You can fall in love with anyone, as long as it’s who we choose
And please do share your opinions, as long as they’re our views
I’ve done it before, I think you have to, we talk about people but who talks about you?
We don’t spare a thought for our brothers nor our sisters. No tears are shed for them but for us, it’s just so different
I know we brush things off just like dirt on your shoulder but will you think about what you did for our world when you get older?
Can you tell your children that you made a change, or will they have to live in a world full of pain?
I’m not saying be the hero or find the cure to cancer, I just think you’ll find it’s simple, you see kindness is the answer.
By Sienna Gilbert-Sweeney (Year 9, Dolphin House)

Sienna commented; “This poem voices the fact that something as small as kindness can make such a significant difference. We don’t have to be super hero’s to make a change but small simple acts of kindness can change the world.”

One Bad Comment

Walking back from a fun day out
Laughing about the good times
When we got milkshakes and waffles
And went on the beach
To skim stones across the sea
The day had been bewildering
The day was fantastic
My friends and I had started heading back
From our day out
One of my friends was looking at the sea
The other cracking hokes
And making us all laugh
Never would I have imagined what happened next…
Not for a million years.
My friends are from different places in the world.
Not that this mattered…
I love learning about their cultures and what their traditions are
I find it very interesting
From out of nowhere
One comment surrounded me and my friends
Three times…
I could not locate where the comment from coming from
My friends quiet with their heads down
Another sound came from a bench where two teenage girls were sitting…
“English only” cackled out of their mouths
At first, I thought they were just saying it wrong and definitely not to us
But when they pointed their cruel little finger at my friends, I knew what they were talking about.
I was scared to say anything
Thought they would do it to me
We walked for about three metres
Until the look on their face made me turn around.
I knew I had to do something
I walked three more metres
Where the comment surrounded us
And shouted, “Why are you so racist?”
“Stop being so rude!”
The girls’ faces turned and not one nasty word
Had come out of their mouths since
I turned back in shock
That anyone would say such a thing
I apologised to my friends about the disgraceful behaviour of the girls
And how it should not ever have happened to them
They turned and said thank you but it happens all the time
That one sentence made me break down
I looked at them with a tear in my eye
I know that this does happen
I have seen it on TV?
But never would I have thought I would be there to see it
That night I was reflecting on what happened
Thinking about the scene and who surround us
A person walking their dog
Some elderly people sitting on a bench
And maybe even more people
I was annoyed
I was discouraged that no one had said anything
But luckily I had the guts to say something
A 12 year old standing up for my friends when not one adult did.
The message I would like people to take with them
Is that if you see someone being picked on
No matter how old they are
Say something
Because one bad comment
Could be deflected by your one good comment.
Thank you.
By Scarlett Knight (Year 8)

Crash

I walk through the forest of sin led by anger and resent.
If I can’t see the man in the sky can I ever really repent?
Forgive me thee I beg for all the foul that I’ve done.
Will it ever be seen, all the way that I’ve come?
Shun me. Drown my shame. I’ll rise from my ashes.
Burn stronger than fresh blood after the stroke of lashes
What if he crashes?
Weighed down by ones around him that have failed,
Flight his destiny, forgiveness is what entails,
With every drop of the blood,
With every thrust of the wing
Higher into the sky, perhaps closer to his dream,
What if he crashes?
Nonsense! He shall think of it no more
For it is love in his soul that makes his flight go evermore,
Above the sin and dread,
Repentance he hath pled,
For he will remember the time his father had once said,
Don’t crash.
By Can Ercivan (Year 12, Spread Eagle)

Can explained the poem: “It is about adversity, repentance and fear. I am using the flight of the phoenix as a continuous metaphor throughout the text to signify the regrowth of a person after they’ve done something they regret.”