'Teaching English' Competition 2010

Many congratulations to Olivia Plunket, who has come joint third in the annual senior national poetry competition run by the SLSS for Teaching English magazine, and to Michael Kemp, who was Highly Commended. Both will attend the awards ceremony in Portlaoise in September. Below are their poems. Olivia's was a response to the TY Images in Poetry module, and Michael's a part of a group exercise response to a creative writing prompt.

Olivia wrote her poem in response to the stunning 1599 painting 'Judith and Holofernes' by Caravaggio (click here for a large image):-


'Judith and Holofernes' by Olivia Plunket

Draping curtains as red as blood
The maid will encourage Judith
As she enters the realm of reality.

Holofernes’s hand clenching
The blood-stained sheets
Upon which his body lies.

His shoulder arching forward,
His muscles pulsing.
Outside the frame his legs are thrashing,
As he tries to fight his fate,
Screaming to his saviour in the heavens.


'I Am', by Michael Kemp

I am from the vapour of the shirt
I am from the puff puff puff like a calabash
I am from the very thin, burning rim
I am from under the cold tap
I am from the pain that wouldn't go away.

From the door with no knob
From the unused tree house
From tiny cushions home to severe amounts of moss, damp and spiders
From the trampoline covered in the faded petals of a blossom tree.

From the traditional Lamb
From the no lamb on Sunday
From the lying toad
From the escape of a mental home
From my Dad's office
From the standing hare that looked like a dog.

From the union of blood, success and tragedy
All these things I loved dearly,
so odd and on their own.
Home is where the heart is; but first you have to find home.