Poetry Competition 2025

School Years 11-13 Category Winner
“Behind the Scenes”
By Jude James Everard

The rain pours,
Filling the craters.
The shrapnel sinks,
Whilst the bodies buoy.

And the poor fellow,
With a hole where his eye was,
With his blood stained skin,
With his guts exposed,
Floats there supposedly dead.
No one checks,
No one bats an eye.
You knew the risks,
That’s what you agreed to,
When you signed a deal with the Devil.

School Years 11-13 – Winner – Judges Comment
“Behind the Scenes”

A punchy poem with a short first verse that makes good use of alliteration to convey the horrific, unadulterated horror of war. The structure of this poem is sharp; short lines delivering clear images that are hard to ‘unsee’ for the reader. The repetition of ‘No one’ emphasizes the ease with which we can collectively turn a blind eye top the reality of war; whilst the shift to the pronoun ‘you’ feels effectively uncomfortable. A great poem made all the more intriguing by its title, with the implication of the ‘show’ that might be put on to make war palatable for the public.

School Years 11-13 Category Runner Up
“Fields”
By Daisy Moir

I wandered over the scarlet fields,
A shield of smoke over my view,
It filled my nose, my throat and thoughts,
The taste of victory, the taste of loss,

Pockets of flame then lit my path,
Steering me forward, steering me on,
It lead me then, to what I feared most;
Their wide, blank eyes, tired and cold,
In the smoke, alone and lost.

Now haunted by their empty stares,
Tumbling through the green filled fields,
Blankets of flowers gracing the soil,
Fields of fury, fields of friends,
All that is true is lonely, dead ends.

School Years 11-13 – Runner Up – Judges Comment
“Fields”
The first person perspective of this poem allows the reader to feel the immediacy of the surroundings and the narrator’s journey. The metaphorical use of language is impactful and the reader is immersed throughout the three verses, especially once the wandering of stanza one turns to panic in stanza two, and ultimately the ‘tumbling’ in the last verse. The negative end to each of the verses emphasizes the loss that runs throughout the whole poem.

School Years 11-13 Category Highly Commended
“The Orchard Where Clocks Forgot to Tick”
By Lyra Cant

I’ve found a special place,
Where time could almost freeze.
I stumbled upon it one spring day,
When my life failed to please.

Through the dark, damp forest,
Past the old abandoned house of brick,
Lays an orchard where clocks forgot to tick.

Running through the mazes of rose bushes,
Smelling the sweet, succulent flowers that have freshly bloomed,
I forget about my world as I’m guided somewhere new.

I follow the stone path,
Carefully hopping from one stone to another.
My feet feel so light,
And my heart begins to flutter.

“Why have you hidden for so long?”
I ask this secret sanctuary,
As I pick the most succulent fruit
From its bountiful yielding trees.

I get no reply,
Yet I don’t wonder why.
Instead, I appreciate where I am,
Rather than wondering if it’s a sham.

I trace the lines of the bark of the apple tree,
And follow them with my feet.
Imagining it’s a map,
Guiding me to somewhere sweet.

The sun stays up,
The breeze stays calm,
Yet it gives a slight push,
Telling me to carry on.

The path winds on,
Surrounded by the most marvelous trees one has ever seen.
I keep carrying on as I wonder,
Is this all just a dream?

I walk for so long,
Yet my feet don’t tire.
That enticing smell still fills the air,
Yet I’d never smelt it prior.

It smells of lavender, vanilla, and fresh cut strawberries,
With hints of sugary plums -
It feels like a childhood memory.

I reach the end of the path and I’m greeted by a fountain,
Made of the finest stone.
It has a cherub flying on top,
He makes me feel less alone.

I was taken aback as he broke from his rigid state,
And softly flew down.
Like a breeze he whispered,
‘You are safe now.’

‘The clocks don’t tick here -
But take that as you will,
As once you stop hearing them,
You can never regain the skill.’

I carefully traced each word in my mind,
Replaying the sentence like a broken record.
“Should I stay in the orchard,
Or should I go home for good?”

I thought about home,
The ups and the downs.
I couldn’t just leave,
I could imagine their frowns.

My thoughts were interrupted,
As the heavenly smell surrounded me,
Bringing me back to the beautiful orchard,
The place that understood me.

It now was all clear,
I was to stay here,
Past the old abandoned house of brick,
In the orchard where clocks forgot to tick.

School Years 11-13 – Highly Commended – Judges Comment
“The Orchard Where Clocks Forgot to Tick”

This narrative poem with its regular rhyme scheme conveys the timeless, still scene that the narrator is travelling through. This ‘orchard’ is reminiscent of a Garden of Eden or some other otherworldly, heavenly place. The reader travels with the narrator as they ‘stumble’ upon this place, and then ultimately choose to stay.