Winners 2009 : 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.

Paul Merchant

Tonbridge School, Kent

Three Guesses

It’s the one where those with goatees
and Gauloises sit in cafés, and agonise
and smoke. The light shifts; a man sits
in the corner, in blue. His mind is flying
on a plane to Japan, writing deep novels,
locked in embrace. The pen on his table lies
bolted to the metal. The last number he dialled
was one number too short – a digit lost
between cortex and fingers.

The one where fingers teeter on steel.
The bridge is suspended. Feet in Converse
quiver. Black jeans and nails. Below: blue, fading.
Behind: nightmares. Out front, light in javelins.
This time, earphones won’t slip him the answers.
No blocking, no late-night retreats to that room.
No ears for the thunder of thoughts
or raging. Move now. There’s no intermediate stage.

The time she pointed out through the door –
woodwork and carpet smelling of school,
sunset down behind walls slapped in blue.
She pointed – ‘Drink?’ It was nothing more,
perhaps, but you would have killed to be
with her. This worming grey thing (got it?)
and its spongy barrier – the hole in your head,
the way you wander now along Frost’s lines,
head turned past your shoulders.

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.