Winners 2009 : Second 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.

Iona Twiston-Davies

Matthew Arnold School, Oxford

Grey Mile

It’s like,
There’s this road.
Long, long road.
Dead straight.
And there’s this bike,
With me on it.
And the road is flooded with fog.
And it feels like touchable nothing.
And I can barely see the wheel before my knees,
Let alone the end of the road.
And the trees on either side flicker.
And all is grey.
And doubt sets in,
Like a slow stomach clamp.
And I think,
Why should it ever stop?
Grey road.
Grey legs turning.
Grey breath in the air.
Why shouldn’t it go on and on forever and ever?

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.