Winners 2009 : Commended : Sophie Stephenson-Wright

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.

Sophie Stephenson-Wright

St Paul’s Girls’ School, London

Villanelle

We saw a nightjar on the windowsill,
flecked with sky and flustered where she lay;
the heart was broken, feather-small and still.

She wouldn’t fly, her wings hadn’t the will
to carry shaking hollow bones; I couldn’t look away
that time we saw a nightjar on the windowsill.

I thought I saw a heartbeat flicker, spill
into the February air and fall astray,
but the heart was broken, feather-small and still.

I’d never seen a broken bird until
that speckled soldier, daubed in gilded grey;
she’s just a nightjar on the windowsill.

Someone must have left her with a singing space to fill,
a star-struck voice; I heard it say
‘The heart is broken, feather-small and still’.

To break a heart, to steal it out takes skill;
I think I lost a little of my own, the day
we saw a nightjar on the windowsill –
the heart was broken, feather-small and still.

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.