Junior Poetry Prize 2021

 Congratulations to the winner of this year's Junior Poetry Prize, Alison Wang.

Here is her poem 'Freedom':

I sat in a big, colourful ‘room’
As light faded in and out on the endless ceiling.
I dreamt about
The thick snow,
The withered leaves,
The endless desert,
the thorns and roses they talked about.

One day, the wall cracked.
I saw a blur of light drifting indistinctly.
Everyone stayed far away;
They only saw the darkness.
I stepped forward,
Groping in the dark.

They couldn’t feel
The harsh piercing coldness,
The crunchy leaves,
The heating sands,
The prickling pain of thorns.

Having the same picture,
They saw the black dot.
I saw the massive brightnesses surrounding the black dot.
My walls shattered
While they were still in the ‘room’.