POETRY DAY VOTING RESULTS

Hi Charlie

Today is  National Poetry Day in the UK!



After careful study of all the votes, please find below the students's favorite poems:
In the end, it will be a top 4 and numerous poems in 3rd place.

Thank you to those who participated and shared a poem about freedom from and outside the collection. It was such a pleasure !

Yours poetically,
Mrs. C.


betWeen the Dog & the Wolf (after Aesop) 
by James Carter

A wolf once chanced upon a dog

outside the wild wood.

Cried Wolf, ‘And how are you today?’

Barked Dog, ‘Well, life is good:

I’m loved, I’m fed, and warm’s my bed.

So me, I’m doing fine!’

‘Fed?’ cried Wolf, and ‘Warm?’ he said.

‘I’d swap your life for mine.’

‘I’m starved,’ moaned Wolf, ‘I’m cold. Afraid.

My life is constant strain.

And every day I struggle on

through wind, through snow, through rain.’

‘But what,’ asked Wolf, ‘is that odd thing?’

‘Oh that!’ laughed Dog, ‘it’s great! -

‘My collar’s how they tie me up

so I will not escape!’

‘And that’s not all, it bears my name!

I run when I am called!

Or fetch a stick, or do a trick.

A dog is not ignored!’

‘A name?’ cried Wolf, ‘Have you no shame?

A beast must keep its soul.

You’re better dead than tame.’ he said.

‘You have been truly sold…

However hard my life may get

my spirit must be free.

I’ll keep my moon, my stars, my dark,

my space to live and be.’

With this, the Wolf began to cry

a tortured, whining growl -

so horrified by brother Dog:

that’s how it learnt to howl.

Poetry and the Dragon

by A F Harrold

If you open up my skull

  You won’t see a brain in there,

underneath the skin and bone

  and bushy spreading hair

is something rather different,

  something quite unique,

something I must feed with fancy

  several times a week.

There’s a dragon in my brain-box,

  puffing fire in my head,

it’s always hungry, always thirsty,

  always must be fed

on images imagined,

on truthful things and lies –

this dragon needs some stoking

  To puff its fire in my eyes.

I feed it with the glitter

  of dew on a spider’s web,

no sooner is it noticed

  than it’s gulped into my head –

I see the leaves of autumn

  turn yellow and red and fall –

the dragon takes everything I see,

  the dragon eats it all.

He swallows the shouting of people,

  angry in the street,

the roar of a jet down the valley

  is gobbled up like meat.

The smell of new bread baking,

  the green of the garden in spring,

the touch of a ghost at the back of my neck –

  the dragon eats everything.

He’s kept alive by the world –

  by the sounds and the sights and the dreams,

he’s got no ideas of his own, you see,

  but he’s bulging at the seams –

he’s fat with the pictures he’s swallowed,

  huge on the noises he’s heard –

from cheers in the playground football match

  to the squawk of grannie’s bird –

that day when Mum was mad with me,

  and the day that I fell in love,

and other days that passed so slow,

  the hurt of the bully’s shove,

the dream that I set foot on Mars,

  the clatter of Beowulf’s fight –

all roll around in the dragon’s maw,

  sparking and letting out light,

and once in a while he puffs up a flame,

  bursting with all he’s eaten

and the images rush, they flutter and roar

  like runners who won’t be beaten

in the race of memory, the race of words,

  of poetry flaming anew –

and I write it all down, one way or another,

‘cause that’s what poets do.

3.

That Feeling

by Jan Dean

Floating does it for me
I feel free in the sea

you can’t rest on a wavecrest
but still you can pull
through the blue
like the hull of a ship
or the keel of a heron
that’s rowing the sky

to swim is to fly
as weightless as air
in the sea I defy
gravity

I am free in the sea
floating does it for me

Reward and Punishment 

by Roger Mc Gough

If you are very good I will give you:

A pillow of blue strawberries

A swimming pool of Haagen-Dasz

A mirror of imagination

A pocketful of yes’s

A hiss of sleigh rides

A lunch box of swirling planets

A doorway of happy endings

A hedgerow of diamonds

A surfboard of dolphins

A cat’s paw of tickles

A carton of fresh rainbow-juice

A forest of chocolate wardrobes

If you are naughty you will get:

A burst of balloon

A screech of wolf

A hoof of piggy bank

A twitch of sideways

A splinter of thirst

A precipice of banana skins

A tyrannosaurus of broccoli

A rucksack of bony elbows

A skeleton of lost pencils

A flag of inconvenience

A chill of false laughter

A blackboard of no way out



Rooftops
by  Brian Moses

I’d love to be able to move
through a city
on rooftops,
to take leaps of faith
as I jump from one building
to the next,
to feel like a superhero
with zero
to frighten me.

How good it would be
to race across acres
of roof tiles,
to slink over skylights,
to leap wide canyons
of streets on the curve
of an arc.

Television crews
would assemble
with reporters gasping out
the news,
wondering who
this is,
this lone leaper
in the dark.

And me, not knowing
where I’m going,
keeping moving,
thinking, hoping
one day, I’ll meet
another like me
who scoots across
roofs,
checking each time
where he plants
his feet.

Street after street,
mile after mile,
we’d explore
the hidden places
only helicopter pilots
would have seen.

I’d love the freedom

to move through a city

on rooftops.

The Instructions

by Kate Wakeling

1. How to spot THE INSTRUCTIONS

THE INSTRUCTIONS come in all shapes and sizes.

They are often found in and around:

• Tall buildings with statues of lions outside
• Faces with an angry expression
• Faces with a smile seen only in the mouth but

     (crucially) not in the eyes

2. The other instructions

There are plenty of other sorts of instructions, which

can of course be useful.

For example:

• Try not to insert any part of your body into this

pond: it contains an irritated crocodile

• For best results, keep both eyes open while landing

this lopsided helicopter

• Do not under any circumstances eat the angry man's 

sandwich

3. What THE INSTRUCTIONS want

You see, THE INSTRUCTIONS aren't here to help you.

They want to help someone or something else.

THE INSTRUCTIONS say things like:

• No one's ever done THAT before: it CAN'T be a

good idea.

• Please do the SAME thing as all those OTHER

people over THERE

• Hear that person talking in the PARTICULARLY

loud voice? They must DEFINITELY be RIGHT.

4. If you follow THE INSTRUCTIONS

If you follow THE INSTRUCTIONS it is unlikely

anyone will ever be very cross with you.

If you follow THE INSTRUCTIONS you are

guaranteed to feel neat and tidy (but also a little

short of breath)

5. If you don't follow THE INSTRUCTIONS

You will likely face some tricky moments. Apologies for this.

However, there is also a good chance that something

strageexcitingremarkableunexpectedslightly-

frighteningbutbrightlycoloured

will happen.

6. The choice

is yours.

 It is Everywhere

by  Remi Graves

Green leaves. Wind kissed.
Closed palms. Fresh hope.

Deep river. Free flow.
No signs. Open road.

Wide sky. Grow wings.
Feel light. Dream big.

No frame. New eyes.
From dark. Find light.

Hug air. Laugh loud.
Breathe deep. Dance wild.

Smile wide. Shut eyes.
Hold chest. Close mind.

Ask cloud. Ask wind.
Ask earth. Ask field.

How to live free?

Hold on. Let Go.
Give trust. Lend heart.

Fall down. Get up.
Eat fear. Drink hope.