The Percival Library celebrates National Poetry Day

Yesterday, the Upper School celebrated the 25th anniversary of National Poetry Day with an assortment of events and activities. We held a particularly pleasing Percival Poetry Party where balloons were blown, many poems were read (some original and some from The Lord of the Rings) and a fair number of party rings were consumed.

Earlier in the week, we welcomed Bristol-based poet and lecturer at Bath Spa University, Rebecca Tantony to the college. She spoke to our year 9s about her work, her life, what inspires her and concluded her talk with reflections on freedom. Students were encouraged to ponder what freedom means to them in no more than six words. Two thoughts that stood out were freedom is bright like a candle and freedom looks like hope, vice versa.

To round off the festivities, the library ran a 25-word poem competition where students were asked to write a poem of exactly 25 words on a topic of their choice. Rebecca Tantony was called in to judge the poems and, against some tough competition, Will Windows was awarded the prize! Here is his winning poem:

He gives his CD a shake
And screams I’ve made a bad mistake
The only other sound’s the break
Of distant waves and birds awake