On Thursday 5th October, the school celebrated National Poetry Day with an interform Haiku competition, on this year’s theme of ‘Refuge’.
Students discussed the concept of refuge and debated the different forms it might take, from refuge in a particular place to refuge in a hobby.
Below are two examples of haikus written for the competition:

A small wooden nest

Pink nose twitching, tiny ears

A harvest mouse sleeps

(9PAK)


In a secret place

Hiding from reality

Sheltered from the truth

(8CJR)


The event was also an opportunity for our Poet Laureates (Matilda, Grace, Eva, and Nico) to write their first poems of the year to mark the occasion. These students hold the prestigious role for the academic year, after winning last year’s Peter Hendry Poetry Competition. Grace said: “We had a great time launching this haiku competition. Poetry is an opportunity to write inventively and personally – the haiku form is the perfect vehicle for concise creative expressions. We are looking forward to writing more poems over the course of the academic year to mark important events like today.

Matilda and Grace’s poems are below:


Sunlight Solace

My mind comes alive in the lowlight

The Sun dissipates my thoughts

illuminates, examines, dismisses

It lifts the weight from me

saturates, brightens, reasons.

Ignores

The warmth of dusk stains your face

lifts, hugs, loves

There is nostalgia in your cheeks

and reminiscence in your teeth

Words unspoken adorn you.

They adore you

Streetlights leaking under blinds

Tears slipping under eyelids

Twilight is iced,

crisp white snow piled up at the door

You feel the stasis of the stars.

Neons slice through midnight

The sheen of plastic signs

illuminated from beneath

Electric,

acid blue

You think it’s time to go.

Now the glitter rinses off –

tap runs cold

ribs cave in.

Thoughts run loose into the night

whipped by the wind

My body crumples under the weight,

pleated,

origami on the floor.

I crawl into the darkness.

I wait for the Sun again.

Matilda (U6HHM)


Refuge

Safety, soft hands on your own,

something to hold, something to have.

So when you have

nothing outside the material comforts of a

soft room scattered with things

Meant to Clean Up

Just things… listless

Just still air and muffled silence

that you can hear.

So when you have

nothing

You find

something

In other people’s stories,

A way to breathe out

without letting the thoughts in

and stop

-Breathe-

For a journey you won’t have to suffer.

To let your own breath catch

with impermanence

Drip

and dissolve into the actions of others.

We’re looking for pearls like permanent bubbles

of notes that strike a chord

in us

Twist a knot that’s there

for unsaid reasons

Remaining unsaid

Unbroken into the soft, muffled silence.

Grace (U6HHM)