Under 18s National Poetry Day competition entries
Winners
Celine - 'Ding Dong'
Louis Wathen - PLAY - an acrostic
Evelyn - Reworked Chaos
List of entries:
1. The tea Pot - Rozalynd Collington
2. Still Playing - by Jasmine
3. Headphones on – Kyle T
4. My life is a play – Shaila
5. X-Box – Alfie C
6. Murder mystery – Olivia
7. Small grey Box – James and Stanley
8. PLAY - Nilton
9. Nilton’s football career – Rylee
10. A glass to my heart – Lilly Rose
11. Play - Ollie
12. Sweet Melodies – Melody
13. Beside me – Zaif H
14. The Passing Playground – Esther
15. Players - Esther
16. Life is a play – Dyinkansola. K
17. My dog – Archie
18. Time – Taylor
19. Power on - Melody
20. Times of Play- Louis Wathen
21. 'Playing with Nature' By Lily De Clemente
WINNER
Ding Dong -
By Celine
Ding
Ring the bell
of the house in blue,
mates’ eyes on me.
Dong
Door swings open.
‘What do you kids think you’re doing?’
Scram, split, old people shooing, dogs barking ravenously.
Ding
A second ring
Same heart pounding, feeling
mates giggling behind the car.
One… two…
Dong
No answer
Pure silence
Then, ‘Maybe next time’, I hear.
WINNER
Re-worked chaos
By Evelyn
Today is the day!
I open this play!
Of enlightenment and terror…
But that’s all I’m going to say!
There will be swords and sparks
and blings and swings
These are all of the theatre things!
I’ll lacquer the halls with beautiful masks
that smile and sing all day
And in the dazzling purple dusk
Then I’ll begin the play.
The lights die out and so will my soul
Being trapped by inky strings
I’ll be controlled like a doll.
These are all of the theatre things!
I’ve lost my mind a broken reality,
stuck in a performance, a colourful facility
The audience laughs and cheers
Whilst sipping glasses of exotic beers.
Draw back the red curtains
The masks are frowning
Like they’re strapped with chains, slowly drowning.
The music is louder, the crew is gone.
Fencing , dancing, sensing, prancing.
The now sad masks are slowly glancing.
I’ve stressed myself, my head rings
These are all of the theatre things!
WINNER
PLAY an acrostic
By Louis Wathen
Pools of water, children playing on the sand between sea and land
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Lazily the sea flows into moats of sandcastles defending the coast
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A wave crashes on golden pebbles, on golden days of play;
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Young children on a sandy beach at the beginning of their days
1.
​
The Tea Pot
By Rozalynd Collington
​
I’m a little Teapot
Short and stout
Take away my handle
Take away my spout
Take away my water
My fears, my doubts,
Take away the parts of me
That let me shout
I’m left with a frame.
A broken window
That covers the pain
Of boiling my insides
For innocent vain
Some shattered scrap
Of what I became
I’m a little teapot
Short and stout
Left with nothing
Yet still I still drown
2.
​
Still Playing
By Jasmine
I always to play the drums
So at the age of seven
When my parents put me into drum lessons
I was ecstatic
The first time my drumsticks
Hit the snare drum
Joy coursed through my bones
The first song I played was ‘Billy Jean’
My teacher said I had lots of potential
Five years later and I still play
The same drum kit, same teacher, same place
Not a thought about quitting
Ten years later and I’ve been through
Countless sticks
Acoustic and electric kits
Over four teachers
Multiple thoughts of quitting
And never playing again
But I still play
The same little girl who first played​
3.
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Headphones On
By Kyle T
My headphones on and controller in hand
The calm feeling of logging on
Playing FIFA with my friends
When I score
The happy feeling I got
When I got the shine of a good card
From a pack
​
4.
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My Life Is A Play
By Shaila
I feel as if I am in a play
As if the me I’m being isn’t me
As if I’m reading a script
A script that makes everybody else happy
But not me
Never me
It’s as though I’m being orchestrated
Never feel myself
Never am myself
There’s only one who sees me for me
Who reads between the lines
And still loves me unconditionally
But still
I feel as if I’m in a play.
​
5.
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X-Box
By Alfie C
My X-box ready for FIFA
I pick up the controller
Ready to game
As I load up the game
The screams and chants of the fans
Scoring that last minute goal
Filled with joy and excitement
6.
Murder Mystery
By Olivia
Murder or mystery
Innocent or guilty
Sheriff or hero
Survive or die
Who will notice?
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7.
Small Grey Box
By James and Stanley
Small grey box
Appeared from the
blue
Box is open
Dark room
Shadows, illuminated by miniature blue rays
8.
PLAY
By Nilton
The dim Blue lights of the Playstation turn on
Roblox loads up and I join my friend
who’s playing Touch Football.
We are separated
Every player for themselves now
A deadly game
only one can win.
In Hailsham it’s different.
Rainy, cold, wet.
It’s much more serious now.
9.
Nilton's Football Career -
By Rylee
​
No one can stop him
in a game or not
Legging or jogging
Telling him no will not work
Olival is unstoppable
Never giving up
On the pitch or on the
lawn, he’ll always be amazing
In his mind or
venturing out he’ll
always be the best.
Little man growing into a big career.
​
10.
A Glass to my Heart
By Lilly Rose
Raise a glass to my heart
Show how much you dislike it.
Show how much you don’t need me
Play with me
Show how much I am unworthy.
A blade to my heart
A blade to my lungs
That’s what it took for me to see
Life looks more grey
You played with me too much
Too much for me to count
Ding …. Ding…. Ringing in my ears
I felt more dead than alive.
You were like a god so pure
But actually you’re a devil in disguise
– not pure at all
I hate you to the core
You made me feel unworthy
But I won’t play that game anymore.
11.
PLAY
By Ollie
It all comes down to one game.
Ninety minutes for the fame
when both the teams are basically the same .
When it’s end to end with twenty minutes
left to play with the score at
4 to 2 – one of the teams ahead by two.
So who’s going to climb to the top
of the best of the best instead of the blame?
Five minutes left, score still at 2-4
Some fans f*ing and blinding
The other fans laughing and cheering
So who’s it going to be for all the fame?
12.
Sweet Melodies
By Melody
Songs replay in my head
As I lay in my bed
Sweet melodies repeat
In the sun’s heat.
Whistles harmonised in the wind
Gives a warm
feeling in my mind
It’s that peace I want to find.
A sigh of relief
With much belief
A sign for freedom
As sweet melodies ring.
13.
Beside Me
By Zaif H
There I lay
in the bed of serenity.
Looking up at the stars
with the body of water glistening
in the moonlight beside me.
Beside me
there stands an open book.
Full of its own fantasies,
full of its own twists and sharp turns.
And yet there it lay
Calm. Peaceful.
If only I were that book.
If only I could lay there
in a playground of flowers,
peacefully
14.
The Passing Playground
By Esther
When I was a kid I used to love playing in the park
Making friends, soaring on swings
and drifting away into my own magical fun.
Now my monkey bars turned into weights
And the grass I ran on turned into a treadmill
Thick veins bursting through my muscles, shirts barely fitting,
Constantly being asked which way the beach is
The struggle of being a gym rat.
​
15.
Players
By Esther
Players only love you when they’re playing
Then like children’s toys they throw you
Away to make room for new
Did I ever even matter to you?
You threw me away and left me yearning for you
The stillness of remembering what we had and what you lost
16.
Life is a Play
By Dyinkansola. K
When I think of a play
I think of life -
a fake and disturbing figure
that we cannot escape.
Some people may think of games,
Computers or their childhood.
But life is like a novel
It has been decided by the author
There are the protagonist and the antagonist
And let’s not forget the minor character
Who has no meaning if they die.
They will not be noticed, like a homeless person.
It is funny how we think
we have control and freedom
Let’s not lie to ourselves.
A play is a cycle of
never ending pain and suffering
it is like we are controlled by a string
and if the author sees you are of no need
they cut the string
but what if our life was a novel of never ending reincarnation?
17.
My Dog
By Archie
I have a dog
My dog is cool
When he sleeps on the sofa
he likes to drool
when I play in the garden
he’s always two steps behind
The way he looks at you
you can tell he’s one of a kind
His name is Albert
but when out on a walk
his leg started to hurt
What a shame dogs can’t talk
In this world of pain
When he dies
His metal leg will remain
I’ll never forget his diamond eyes
I would be lost without you
My furry therapist
What would I do?
18.
Time
By Taylor
I’m laying in bed cold instead
Screams bellowing through my head
I’m cold
I’ve grown old
But once I was fun, still young
Running with my friends
Times never end
All these times
Now I’m writing helpless rhymes
Feelings moving on and on
Running freely
All day long
Now I’m here, almost dead
Sad and dumb and in my bed
Now I’m done
Nothing’s fun.
19.
Power On
By Melody
I may sit in my room
All day and all night
I don’t sit in a silent room
My Xbox illuminates
little white light
Makes the darkest room light
Power on
Clicks of my controller
Echoes in my quiet house
So quiet you could hear a mouse
I click on a game
FIFA’s the one
I click on a game
The time ticking
The animated ball
Moves along my screen
Minutes go by
The score is tied
Last minute it bangs
Into the goal
We’ve won
My power mode is on.
20.
Times of Play
By Louis Wathen
Children running as they play hide and seek
Their brother laughs and says ‘I found you’
They reply, ‘No, you haven’t, we’re inside a shoe’
Living with an old lady who doesn’t know what to do
They’ll play until the sun goes down, till it’s time for tea
And if they’re good, they’ll all have desserts
And they’ll play for joy while their young and free
In their nursery rhymes, with their plays on words
When it’s time for bed, they’ll try to stay up until nine
Claim they haven’t been fed, and each raise up a fork
But empty plates will be their undoing in time;
They’ll need one day to pay for their play with work
But now tucked up in bed in a show of old leather
They relive their dreams of yesterday
Knowing deep down that nothing’s forever
And soon they must leave these times of play
21.
Playing with Nature
By Lily De Clemente
Time is a healer they say,
However the rainforest is battered everyday,
Every time people don't obey
Really we just watch and stand,
At the future of the rainforest in our hands,
In the face of those we pretend to be a perfect stranger,
Now the forest is in danger,
For now humans are in greed,
Or sadly the animals are in need,
Rainforests are now sad,
Everyone stop being so bad,
Seriously this still goes on,
Though time could fix our wrong.