Winners 2007 : Runner-up : Rees Arnott-Davies

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

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Rees Arnott-Davies

Pimlico School, London

Gallus Domesticus

I remember the cockerel feather –
The burnt colour of crude oil and coal powder –
You found it in the hillside for me, at least
Seven years ago, now. Maybe we’d gone up as a dare –
Or perhaps to pass the time. Most
Probably to see the rain-struck estuary,
Less fierce than under the holiday
Sun, naked without the usual boats, untouched almost

By that violence the sea seems to possess. And in the sedge
Sat this wingless feather, fixing it to my head
You called it my crest, called me a little chieftain.
At the hilltop you put me on your back, let
My fingers clutch your neck and grope the rain,
Trying for what lay beyond the clouds.
Even then I heard the notes of death crowd out
Your throat. Before going back you pointed out the heron

Angling like a quaver in the water.
You thought that I’d forgotten? Well I haven’t.
Something else I remember (but would never dare mention)
Is the day three years ago we found you sat on the Severn
Bridge, too scared to jump for fear of falling,
Crying calmly into your snow white fingertips,
Holding my cockerel feather to your eyes to dry the tears.
Today I threw it in the oven – watched it flare up like the past.

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.