Winners 2007 : Runner-up : Laura Marsh

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.

Laura Marsh

Redborne Upper School, Ampthill

Missiles

Nights ago, fire-crackers woke me.
Flashing rude, electric light at my window,
they reeled red in squadrons –
Victory Rockets, Spitfires, Midnight Sun.
I watched the sky flicker with them
like old war films; silver petards reporting
in bursts of confused applause.
Their trails of pink smoke and sulphur hung
long afterwards, bleary skywriting.

Then I dreamed of flying:
usual, uncoded dreams, where I would slip
among large, quiet stars; not soaring
or exploding for a silent crowd

and, in the morning,
my eyes, my skin did not itch
for gunpowder.

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.