POEMS POEMS POEMS!

5 June - 13 attending

12 June - 11 attending
19 June - 13 attending

For the past three workshops, we have been looking at various poetry prompts and challenges to help prepare submission for the Foyle Young Poets of the Year award.

On 5th June, we looked at Soup Sister by Rebecca Perry, as a starting point for poems about friendship/a friend we miss, focusing on specific details and memories we share with them:

BY JAKE

from the giggles
from the laughs
from the dancing around
from the rolling around

from the bad days
to the good days
he is there for you
tomorrow
still there
months and months go pass
still there
thats a good friend

On 12th June, with England sadly losing to Italy in the final of the Euros, we looked at reasons to be proud. Inspired by the poem won't you celebrate with me by Lucille Clifton, we thought about something that we had done in the past week, the past year and in our whole lives which made us proud. Then we thought about the feeling of pride itself, and similes/metaphors to describe it, before writing our own celebration poems...

BY NEELESH

Won't you celebrate with me what I did 2 years ago?

When I first started learning to swim.I felt nervous like my first day at
school.
After a while, I stopped beginning to worry.
Won't you celebrate with me
when I won a sports competition a month ago?
All my friends were counting on me
to let my team win.
I couldn't believe because of me we actually won yet I
thought I'll see a bunch of frowns on their face.
These were two of my most
successful time ever and wish it happens everyday

At the end of the session, we also thought about a character who was proud of something they had achieved. What was getting in their way, how did they overcome this, and how did they feel when they finally achieved this thing?

Here is an anonymous story responding to this brief...

And there they were. Sitting on top of the hill, surrounded
by red moss and grass.
An end to this multiverse, one of many, this one built for
reunion.
They sat on the hill that once belonged to Seta, a planet, a
place they enjoyed.
We used to relax on that planet, there was a lake in Hallia,
it shone the most amazing silver in the evening, I can’t remember its name now:
I don’t think anyone can.
I climbed the hill from Seta, weaving through abandoned
spacecraft centuries old, small animals from the Universe of Ambrosia shuffled
around me with ruffled violet feathers.
The concept of a sun was setting on what used to be a
horizon and I’d finally found them.
They were looking across the plains ahead, patches of
planets: scattered and strewn. The end of reality was soon.
Ancient stars begun to shine and I finally found them. .

On 19th June, we looked at the 'I am from' poem brief, set up by George Ella Lyon, and referenced by Kate Clanchy in her brilliant book 'How to grow your own poem'. We listed tastes, smells, sounds, images, objects, textures, people, weather, and emotions we associated with where we think of as home, to create our own 'I am from' poems...

BY NEELESH

I am from bananas, honey and apple pie
I come from lavender,
cookie fresh from the oven and coffee.

I come from my old books, my chair and my rusty table.

I am from a maternal grandmother who used to play in the Olympics.

I am from a mother who likes
to do knitting everyday.
I come from laughing, whistling and crying.
I am from a
cold chilly weather making me shiver.

My friends and my family would take me away from my sweet home.

Our blogs

Regular news and insight from our many poets, writers, educators and facilitators

POEMS POEMS POEMS!