By Jemma Prileszky, Yr 9
This week we are delighted to share the winning junior poem in the recent Given Poems for National Poetry Day 2018 which was written during a Saturday morning class by Jemma.
You can also see the Spanish translation and other winning poems here.
All the entries had to contain the words: decrepit, snow, nest, window and cast.
winter is here the snow today is like a big cast keeping the broken bones of earth while they heal a decrepit bird’s nest sits in frost at the base of a black tree from the window, a boy sees three eggs pale blue as a frozen sea slowly freezing while the unknown bird is away he doesn’t want to watch turns away asks the air if mother will return to save her children spring is here the cold shell of winter broken life bursts from newly healed wounds a black tree is no longer black instead shimmers pink as its flowers ruffle in the breeze the boy wades through ankle-deep grass content boots shuffle cicada hum something cracks underfoot carefully hidden by snow long-forgotten at the tree’s base lies the nest icy ocean eggs have disappeared along with the cold something new here besides the nest surrounded by delicate spring snowdrops an ivory skeleton of the mother bird she’d been there all along © Jemma Prileszky/ NZ Given Words/ The School for Young Writers
As well as using the five words, Jemma said her poem for this competition draws on the idea of indecision and the consequences of not acting when you know you should have bothered.