Poetry Week

In the coming week we will be posting plenty of poems. As a start, below are two of the poems from Ben Russell's winning portfolio of poems for the Senior Poetry Prize. Some from other candidates will shortly follow. There have also been a lot of excellent entries for the Junior Poetry Prize, the result of which will be announced shortly. On Wednesday in Chapel the Department will launch its 'Poem of the Week' scheme.


'The Long Cry', by Benjamin Russell

It was a long, narrow corridor
With many doors.
The wind came in through the cracks
In the old, paint-faded windows

And tittered and whistled and echoed
Off the walls, worn by fingers:
Generations of children
Sliding along,
Their faces black and white and silent.

And then the piano,
That music
So soft and slow and lilting; the beauty of slender Slavic fingers.
So steeped in woe as it was, I could barely hold back the tears.
And with my voice low and still
I began to sing.


'Pride of Place', by Benjamin Russell

Dipping your fingers
In my eyes,
Like little pots of finger paint,
You painted the most awkward picture ever.
Such a dull brown colour.
And I still couldn’t see.