Leonardo Poetry Competition: Year 9 Finalists

 

Stranded

Lost

Forgotten

She lies there

The sand like blistering hot coals under her skin

But she doesn’t move

 

The sun’s out but she sees no light

The air’s arid but she feels cold

Numb

Her heart’s beating but she doesn’t feel a pulse

 

A teardrop falls from her eye

A tiny rivulet that runs down her cheek

Evaporates as quickly as it appeared

 

Oh, how she wishes she could do that

Turn to mist and float away

Disappear and never return

But she’s stuck here

Abandoned by the people she thought she trusted

 

A feeling of longing overwhelms her

An ache forms in her chest 

Pulling her deeper into despair

She curses herself for being so weak

But let’s the waves wash her away anyways

 

 Jiali Hicks (Year 9)

 

 

 So fast

So fast that all is incomprehensible and a smudge

But, so fast that nothing will ever catch you

A wave of unfathomable power tumbling magnificently 

Alas, you will never reach the end of everything

Totally divine

Lawless and so moral-less

But you can only live;

In darkness, travelling at the speed of light

 

Gus Corbett (Year 9)

 

 

Isolation in Heaven

 

All alone in isolation

But surrounded by God’s creation

The reflection of light on the waves of the sea

Is this Heaven, it certainly could be!

 

They say the tide waits for no man

That’s fine by me, as it fits my plan

Over the horizon, I shall sail alone

Is this Heaven, that I call my own!

 

Sun and moon, gales with wind squalling

This is my life, this is my calling

With waves crashing all around me

Is this Heaven, or is it just the sea?

 

Peace and tranquility has come about today

The sea is my home, the place I stay

The waves that crashed and took so many lives are now still again

Is this Heaven, Amen.

 

Piers Webb (Year 9)  

  

 

Waves

 

Waves rise and fall,

With the squall and pull of the tide and the lies 

That run through my head 

Which hurts with the dread of what has not be said, 

and i think to myself with these waves 

how to be brave when afraid 

when caught in the rip tide of my fear 

with no time to bide, 

and as the wave falls I see, 

the line of where we live or die.

 

Lucca Drake (Year 9)

 

 

 

Making Waves

 

Just one drop, just one tiny speck of hope.

That’s all we need.

As that one drop will create ripples,

And ripples make waves.

 

As you stare across the surface,

What you see can appear calm.

Yet the waves are coming.

And the waves will bring change.

 

There comes a time when you will stand up,

Make a noise, be heard.

However big, however small,

You can make the change.

 

The world is at our fingertips.

Is that the world you want to live in?

Only you can stop the cycle.

Only you can make the change.

 

And soon the clouds will clear,

The colours shift and you will breathe.

As the world appears brighter,

And the change has been made.

 

So smile with me today,

And cast your drop into the ocean.

Because that drop will create ripples,

And ripples make waves.

 

Katie Livermore (Year 9)

 

  

  Eternity

Perfection

Utopia

A never-ending sheet of glistening water.

Waves merely snoozing, sleeping, slumbering,

Such immense bliss, you feel suffocated-

Like glue ensnaring you,

Confined

Imprisoned

You never want to leave.

 

When the tides are high and the wailing wind charges,

Turbulent waves gallop across the battlefield;

Moving as one mighty beast,

Clashing;Buckling;Swerving;Slashing;

Splattering the sky with foam like blood

As the gaping waves engulf the fallen.

 

Sabiha Sabikunnaher (Year 9)

 

 

…to the place beyond the waves…

 

Overwhelmed

I see you through the foamy seas,

fifty yards away,

lost

suspended in time

and I meet your eyes across the shadows of the waves

you move so fast,

blink and I’d miss you

I miss you

I miss you already

though you’re not even gone

the story of your life beats its rhythm in my heart

spilling its final chapter into my soul

as I watch you struggle

watch you cry out

but your screams are muffled by the chanting of the waves

and I can’t hear you

can’t help you

can’t find you

but I can read the thousand terrors

issuing from your heart

I catch them in the palm of my hand

and hold tight,

hold tight as you fall through the water

a ballerina dancing on the wind

and flung through the doors of time

to the place beyond the waves

and I hear those echoes in my mind

the echoes of the song of the dead

as you alight on the crest of a distant wave,

blink and I’d miss you,

I miss you.

 

Dawn Sands (Year 9)

 

Waves

 

Twisted cosmos

Hallucinated figures,

Foreign faces,

Pressurised motion,

Some run,

Some approach,

Taking the oblivious and limp,

Unfair yet sure,

Howl me the question,

You’d look for an answer,

Let me echo the moon

 

Amelia Rahman (Year 9)