Winners 2006 : First Prize

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.

Colette Sensier

Varndean College

Country House Communion

Nightly they fold into their separate beds,
naked, their quiet blood the only link,
jumping from pulse to pulse, from room to room.
The daughters lie like lupins on pressed sheets,

naked, their quiet blood the only link.
Through partition walls they hear each other’s heartbeats:
flat and dull like pressed lupins between sheets.
Their parents slumber in a white room down the hall;

through frail skin and bones they touch each other’s heartbeat:
through duvets’ interfaces they still reach…
to find communion through shared sleep.
The parents savour slumber in their white room off the hall.

Through duvets’ interfaces, out they reach;
their thoughts and yearnings rise through muslin curtains
to find communion outside, through sleep.
Outside the dreams condense upon the panes,

their thrills and griefs still cling like dust to muslin curtains.
The family sleeps in paper boxes they call home.
And the youngest daughter talks gibberish in her sleep.
And the eldest lies with one arm above her head…

The family sleeps in paper boxes they call ‘home’;
every night they fold into their beds,
sliding the duvet up over their backs - shaking for a second the wired sleep
that jumps from pulse to pulse, from room to room.

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.