Winners 2006 : Third 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.

Alice Alexandre

The Godolphin and Latymer School

Private Property

Wind ruffles my hair. I place one foot in front of another,
Carefully. The pavement’s uneven. Walk only on the stones.
Never the lines. Hair stuck on my lip makes me pull faces.
I look like a clown, blown around. And cold in the wind.

Stone, stone, foot? I bump into a stranger and look up wide-eyed.
Our faces meet for the briefest moment. We’re so close.
I see my face reflected in dark pupils. I’m surrounded by red and white.
The colours merge together at a point behind me, behind my head.

We both mumble an apology, I step sideways and look away, behind.
Behind the stranger, at the red and white bricks mirrored in my eyes,
Mirrored in their eyes. Each house is different. I walk forwards.
Lined flower pots, a green door, a blue one, a Welcome doormat.

All founded on red bricks, with white roof-lions and black drainpipes,
Each with a distinct, subtle something. I glance behind me, the stranger is gone,
Indifferent. A woman steps out with a slight shiver, crouches and disappears.
A door bangs shut and two empty milk bottles hide behind a corner by the door.

I reach my house, an identical twin of the one on the left.
Are we the echoes of others? Are we all the same? Am I the stranger,
Seeing the same houses? Or are they singularly, obscurely different?
I have my memories, my warmth, my coldness. Do others? Do you?

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.