14 January 2026
Posted by Joanna Barnard
What If?
Another What If? poem, this time by Writing for Wellbeing participant Jack Billington. We were inspired last term by the wonderful Ada Limon's poem Dead Stars.
Looking forward to our new term of writing, beginning tomorrow. Thanks Jack for letting us share your beautiful words.
What If
What if we were meant to be human beings,
and not the frantic doings we’ve become.
Pacing in circles, dazzled by our own inventions,
hungry for a stimulation that never satisfies,
offering up our days to the warm hum of consumption.
What if this is how a species sleepwalks,
not with terror, but with content,
drifting softly toward the edge?
What if we’ve forgotten the darkness we were born from,
the endless night that held us,
long before we tamed the sky.
What if we stand beneath ancient heavens
and mistake the light of dying stars for a promise.
Their beauty a cruel mirage,
their brilliance already gone by the time it reaches us.
A sky full of ghosts whispering;
Don’t worry, you have more time.
What if our greatest wound
is the shrinking of our imagination.
That soft, celestial engine
once capable of dreaming cities from sand
and constellations from chaos?
Now we bend it to smaller things:
to calendars, to fleeting agendas,
to those who ask us only
to imagine a future that fits neatly
within their own brief term in power.
And what if beneath the noise,
beneath the screens and the deadlines
and the desperate need to feel useful,
we still carry the capacity
to envision something greater?
A future that outlives the minds that dreamed it,
that grows roots deeper than any mandate,
that glows with a light not borrowed from dying stars,
but forged anew, fiercely,
by a humanity that remembers
what it once hoped to become?
What if all is not lost
only forgotten?
-Jack Billington
Photo by Dave Pullis on Unsplash
Archive
Junior & Young Writers Week 3: Return From The Magical World
Junior & Young Writers Week 2: African Mythology
Problems, Problems, Problems...
Cautionary Tales & Christmassy Opening Lines
You've Gotta Have Pace, Pace, Pace
Junior & Young Writers Week 1: Alien Encounters
Junior & Young Writers: Week 5 - Play on Words Pt. 2
Junior & Young Writers: Week 11 - end of term showcase [build a bard workshop]
Junior & Young Writers: Week 10 - Greek Theatre - chorus stories
Junior & Young Writers: Week 9 - Greek Origin Stories - Spring
Rubber Ducks & Writing Festivals
Junior & Young Writers: Week 7 - Greek Hero Stories [the 12 labours of Hercules]
Junior & Young Writers: Week 12 [Wild Words] - Stuff & Things
Junior & Young Writers: Week 11 [Wild Words] - World Building 2
Junior & Young Writers: Week 10 [Wild Words] - World Building
Junior & Young Writers: Week 9 [Wild Words] - Mystery & Choose Your Own Adventure
Junior & Young Writers: Week 8 [Wild Words] - Spooky Sequels & Potion Poems
Junior & Young Writers – Week 10 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Final Showcase
Junior & Young Writers – Week 9 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Editing & Performance Tips
Junior & Young Writers – Week 8 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Cuteness
Time goes on by Tavinder Kaur New
Junior & Young Writers – Week 7 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Natural Solutions
Junior & Young Writers – Week 6 (Writers’ Inspiration) – The Language of Fruit and Veg
Junior & Young Writers – Week 5 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Adventures In Space
Tinklebobs and Bedraggled Angles
Junior & Young Writers – Week 4 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Our Environment
Fortune Tellers & Future Letters
Junior & Young Writers – Week 3 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Home
Young Writers - Week 10 (The Art of Writing) – Final Week Showcase
Junior Writers - Week 10 (The Art of Writing) – Final Week Showcase
Young Writers – Week 9 (The Art of Writing) – Choose Your Own Adventure
Junior Writers – Week 9 (The Art of Writing) – Choose Your Own Adventure
Young Writers – Week 8 (The Art of Writing) – Sequel Stories
Junior Writers – Week 8 (The Art of Writing) – Sequel Stories
Young Writers – Week 7 (The Art of Writing) – Picture Prompts
Junior Writers – Week 7 (The Art of Writing) – Picture Prompts
Young Writers - Week 6 (The Art of Writing) - Script-writing & Dialogue
Junior Writers - Week 6 (The Art of Writing) - Script-writing & Dialogue
Junior Writers – Week 5 (The Art of Writing) – Poetry
Young Writers - Week 5 (The Art of Writing) - Poetry Potions
Edward The Martyr - A Competition!
Mood Boards and Postcards from Space
Young Writers - Week 3 (The Art of Writing) - PLOT
Junior Writers - Week 3 (The Art of Writing) - PLOT
Moomin Stories and Hollywood Pitches
Young Writers - Week 2 (The Art of Writing) - Genre & Setting
Junior Writers - Week 2 (The Art of Writing) - Genre & Setting
Prompts, Dialogues, and Cliché
Story Structure Part One: Exposition and Beyond...
Young Writers - Week 1 (The Art of Writing) - Character
Young Writers - week 4 - Nature Writing [animals & wildlife]
Junior Writers - week 4 - Nature Writing [animals & wildlife]
Young Writers - week 3 - Nature Writing [trees/plants/flowers]
Junior Writers - week 3 - Nature Writing [trees/plants/flowers]
Young Writers - week 2 - 'fractured fairy tales'
Junior Writers - week 2 - 'fractured fairy tales'
