Winners 2004 : Runner-up : Joanna Moorman

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.

Joanna Moorman

Early Morning

(with/out you)

You are shadows at the door
Even before
Light breaks across the horizon
Flooding the world.
You have already washed
Away on a different morning
To some distant
Tied and Pinstriped place
Of memories not your own.
Parallel lines that never cross.
You are irritable,
Changeable out of your element.
You used to turn to the light
Wake up shining
Feet firmly planted in the
Earth you loved.
Tree tall, until you started this
Sink or swim business.
Something that could reach up
And make the stars more believable
By showing them to me
Through your stained glass self.
You were strength and shelter
Always knowing how to bend
Without breaking or betraying.
Now, every suited second
The sea erodes a little more
Of what I loved.

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.