23 November 2021
Posted by Tabby Hayward
US AND THE UNIVERSE
This week we were looking at the About Us poetry and coding competition - from a poetry angle, of course!
The theme is 'connectivity and the universe' and they have lots of free useful resources on the different approaches you might want to take - looking up to the stars or into the blood and cells of the body, or around us at the natural world!
We started this week by looking to the stars and writing about our star signs - some knew a lot about this already, while others weren't at all interested! We thought about the strange symbolism - what does it mean to be a bull if you're Taurus, or a water carrier if you're Aquarius - or to be an air sign, or an earth sign?
Leo took the approach of writing a poem about how much he hates star signs - which is nonetheless rather beautiful and haunting!
Down down down
down to dusty death,
to mines of gold and further down
down down down
down to the dark abyss,
to the edge of life and further down
down down down
down to unlit candles,
to the deepest depth yet further still,
down down down
down to rotten souls
beyond the depths of hell and deeper
deeper deeper deeper
to the part of my mind where
star signs reside.
Next, we looked at the About Us resources about writing about stars and space and how we might be connected - starting with the poem 'Roll Up! Roll Up!' by Cheryl Moscovitz.
We looked at this as inspiration to create our own conversation poems (using quotes from astronauts, scientists, priests and poets about the stars and space as a starting point!) or portrait poems (taking something from space and personifying it/describing it to paint a picture!)
Aurora wrote this striking poem, connecting the speaker of the poem with a particular star:
That star is me, not the brightest,
nor gaudiest or bawdiest or all-so-lordiest,
but a little pinprick of electric light
in the dark and lonely night.
It hides its face behind a veil of pollution,
I hide from problems with no solution:
we both like to stay out of sight
in the dark and lonely night.
We have these ambitions, hopes but few,
yet still we wish to keep them true.
Unlucky are we, in our plight,
in the dark and lonely night.
Our lives we squander, so depend
on nought but that would seal our end,
and so do I begin my fight,
deny the dark and lonely night!
So call those far and in between!
We’re shining now to bring our dream!
For together, wrought with might,
there is no more a lonely night.
We'll look more at different approaches to this competition next week!
Archive
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
Junior 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'
Young Writers - week 1 - 'from deep inside a forest'
Creating Communities through Writing
WORDCUP - Hounsdown Session #6
Making pillows in a house full of feathers
WORDCUP - Hounsdown Session #5
Exploring home – a place, person, house
WORDCUP - Hounsdown Session #4
Stories From Our Streets at the Abbeyfield Wessex Society Reminiscence Session at Poole Library
What Do You Really Mean? Writing Dialogue for Scripts
WORDCUP - Hounsdown Session #3
Character Building & Murder Mysteries
Going inside – from a spark to a story
WORDCUP - Hounsdown Session #2
Maybe I Can Be Invisible After All... Monologues
Creative Writing: Fun Facts, Diverse Voices and Different Perspectives
Writing Competition - Stories From Our Streets
Stories From Our Streets Community Activity Pack
Thinking in-quiet, after the fire
Found Cities, Lost Objects: Women in the City Curated by Lubaina Himid CBE
Ekphrastic Jukebox - Writing to Music
ArtfulScribe LitFest Community Showcase 2023
Young writers exercise their creative power
Writing to The Sorcerer's Apprentice
The Mousetrap - Mayflower Young and Junior Writers Investigate Mystery!
Stories From Our Streets Launch!
Interview: In Conversation with Dr Victoria Leslie
The Missing Farmer/ Blackout Poetry & DADA
Exploring this wonderful World
Using props to create characters/ working as a writing room
Stories of the Dust and Character Questions
Storytelling and Escalation or Rising Action
Junior Writers Club Acrostic Poem
Notes on Intention for MAST Collective - Year 3 - Facilitation Focus
Earthquakes & Dominoes - MAST Collective Blog #4
SUPER MARIO AND POP CULTURE POEMS
Receptionists & Inky Voids - MAST Collective Blog #3
Saying No and saying YES on National Poetry Day!
There's a Dragon in the Wardrobe...
House Warming Party (The Mortifying Ordeal of Being Known) - MAST Collective Blog #2
Intern Blog 5 - The Publishing Process
POEMS TO SOLVE THE CLIMATE CRISIS
On The Streets With Theresa Lola
Intern Blog 4 - The Internship Journey
NEW DIRECTIONS, STARTING SMALL - THE ORWELL YOUTH PRIZE
LIGHTHOUSES, HOPE AND METAPHORS
on workshop and transformations: frogs, lions, and the duck that becomes a larder...
Poetry Ambassadors - Interview with April Egan
Intern Blog 1 - Finding a Voice
World Poetry Day: Fluffypunk and the Invisible Women
On Being a Writer: A Conversation by Beth Phillips & Sam Morton
Poetry Ambassadors - Interview with Kaycee Hill
UNHEARD VOICES: INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY, AND STORIES OF CONFLICT
