OXFORD performed well both home and away as poets from across the city came together for National Poetry Day.

Ten pop-up readings were held in various locations on Thursday as Oxford’s finest poets young and old performed their favourite works.

Two Oxford Spires Academy students travelled to London for the John Betjeman Poetry competition final with 13 year-old Helen Woods coming back with first prize.

She fought off competition from 2,200 entries, including fellow finalist and school friend Jasmine Burgess.

  • Our top stories

Helen’s poem about Rhossili beach in Wales won the national competition for 10-13 year olds.

She said: “When I found out I was a finalist it was amazing enough so finding out I’d won was just awesome, I’m so excited that my poem got that far and won.

“The theme was ‘write about a place’ and my poem was about Rhossili beach.

“I go on holiday to Wales quite a bit and also I really like the name.”

The Oxford Spires Academy girls, both in year 9, performed their poems along with the other finalist before Helen was announced as the winner of the £1,000 prize.

Forward prize-winning poet Kate Clanchy, who works with pupils at the school in Glanville Road, East, Oxford, said: “The competition is on a national scale and dominated by very big private schools with lots of resources and I feel triumphant we’ve done so well.

“It shows there’s a very strong poetry culture in the school. I’m just so proud of both the girls — they read their poems so well.”

Among the locations for the pop-up readings, organised by Oxford Brookes University poetry centre, were the university’s various campuses, Blackwell’s bookshop, the Old Fire Station in George Street, Oxford, and Oxford Castle.

Charlbury poets John Lanyon, Adrian Lancini and Ed Fenton performed a selection of poems from their published works A Funny Way With Words at Oxford Castle.

Mr Lanyon, 59, said: “It was great to be able to take part in it and be part of the Oxford poetry scene.

“It was nice to meet other poets and get our words out into the public.”

Claire Cox, head of business and development at Oxford Brookes University, performed her own poetry in a pop-up reading event at the University’s Gipsy Lane campus.

Ms Cox writes free verse poetry, mainly drawing on inspiration from memories and experiences.

She said: “It went really well. There was a selection of great up-and-coming poets.

“I don’t perform my poetry as regularly as some of the others because of my job but it was nice to do so to celebrate National Poetry Day and be a part of something national.”

Pupils at Rye St Anthony School in Headington got in on the act as well.

Bernard O’Donoghue, celebrated poet and close friend of the late poet laureate Seamus Heaney, gave readings and a masterclass to year 12 and 13 girls.

Emily Lacey, 15 said: “He chose some very beautiful and emotional poems.

“It was interesting to hear his opinion on Seamus Heaney’s poems and his inspiration for his own poems.”

 

Rhossili Beach by Helen Woods

  • PART of Helen’s winning poem:

The Sea refuses to be a Sonnet
In daytime the sea is in love with the sky; each wave
Is reaching out to touch its blue-grey face
The sea smooths gold in a blink and leaves it cold
On the sand as a piece of twisted wood.
The sea eats the ugliness of aeroplanes
And spits out gannets, albatrosses, gulls
The sea reads the words written on the beach
And sings them to the sky, who rains them down
On the rolling waves in high disdain.
At night the sea blows breath of fire and lights
The yellow moon, then eats its supper off it.
It cries over life and the living, embraces the dead.
No poet can tame it; it will not be a sonnet.
Walk the line, the border between: the sea, the land, the roof of sky, the rim
Watch the sun’s hot stare, the white seagulls need no passport.
Your feet feel a million closed eyes, a million tiny worlds, the scratch of a million fragments of ancient pieces of the world from almost before the sun first opened its eye.

Oxford Mail:

  • Helen Woods

 

  • Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed.