Student excels in Charles Causley Young Person’s Poetry Competition

News - May 15

Congratulations to Year 11 student Daya N who won second prize in the prestigious Charles Causley Young Person’s Poetry Competition. Her winning poem is below.  

Coffee and Chocolate 

I want my house to smell of coffee and chocolate. 

Sweet enough for your mind to wander, 

Strong enough to pull you down. 

Sunlight will come through the windows in 

sharp rays, blurred around the edges. 

dust will dance and float in pools, 

illuminated by the rising star. 

The passing city noise will be a backdrop to each slow morning. 

I shall watch it from my window. 

I want my house to smell of coffee and chocolate. 

The smell will travel in lush waves from my kitchen countertops 

Engraved in to the wood top surfaces. 

And I will lay in bed as the sun lands on my eyes, 

An audience to the dust suspended in its performance. 

My cd player will work overtime as I listen to album after album, 

Beside me, a sweet bouquet of roses lay in vase from an old friend. 

I will think of a boy I loved or an old abandoned hobby, 

And as time stands still, 

I will remember the life I have lived. 

And perhaps a life that could have been. 

The news will tell no stories of destruction. 

No explosions halfway around the world with empty threats to bring them closer, 

No news reporter introducing despairing headlines, 

No images of people standing on ledges, one word away from the end. 

There will be no fatal events to 'bring out the good in people'. 

People will simply be good. 

Only then, will my house smell of coffee and chocolate. 

And there in the sunlight, in a futile and desperate hope for peace, 

I will lay. 

With my cd player and my roses, 

The sound of traffic in background 

And the thoughts of every moment I have lived. 

I will make coffee and eat chocolate and sit in peace. 

Before I turn on the news, 

Before the cd ends, 

Before the roses die. 

And for one moment of one slow morning in the future, 

In a quiet, strange melancholic happiness, 

A small pocket of peace. 

Neatly encased in tragedy.