Winners 2001 : Runner-up : Swithun Cooper

Summer School 2012

The 8th Tower Poetry Summer School for young poets aged 18-23 will be held in Christ Church, Oxford from 28-31 August 2012. The tutors will be Alan Gillis (University of Edinburgh, Scotland) and Kevin Young (Emory University, Atlanta, USA).

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Poetry Matters

Poetry Matters is an exciting on-line poetry magazine which provides a fresh, dynamic perspective on poetry issues through a mix of news, reviews and comment.

Swithun Cooper

Battered in Blue

The door slams shut – I walk from room to ruminate;
You, like bad movies and like good banking schemes
Have developed a shockingly low interest rate
Which I cannot meet. Now you have gone, it seems.

The shade of sea and sky becomes quite poignant:
We’re pretty in pink, but battered in blue.
To call this misery would be too lenient,
Something is missing, and I know it’s you.

I spend the evening drinking with a housemate,
We pass the drinks round one by one.
His name is Paranoia and his friends (Hate
And Jealousy) join us now you have gone

Which leaves me picking up romance’s litter:
Tonight, Matthew, I’m going to be bitter.

About Tower Poetry

Tower Poetry exists to encourage and challenge everyone who reads or writes poetry. Funded by a generous bequest to Christ Church, Oxford, by the late Christopher Tower, the aims of Tower Poetry are clear: to stimulate an enjoyment and critical appreciation of poetry, particularly among young people in education, and to challenge people to write their own poetry. Creative writing should be a central element in literary education, and learning about writing poetry can help students to think about ways of reading poetry.

Publications

The Twelve:

Poems from the 7th Tower Poetry Summer School 2010
Edited by Daljit Nagra and Jo Shapcott
The Twelve contains 56 poems from the 12 young poets who attended the Summer School.