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Education » Resources
› Latest news Exploring the world through words
Poetry engages the creative imagination and provides an ideal medium through which to explore and express ideas in any subject. Through reading, writing and performing poetry pupils can develop greater confidence and fluency in using language, and find new ways of seeing, describing, interpreting and imagining the world. Here we highlight just some of the work of young poets to come out of workshops, class projects and competitions in the last couple of years. Each example will provide useful tips and models that you can adapt for your own writing workshops and lesson plans, covering a diverse range of poetic forms, themes and approaches. Poppy Poetry
The poetry competition enables pupils to learn in a way that is both creative and engaging. Photographs by acclaimed war photographer, Robert Wilson, taken in Baghdad, Iraq, and Helmand Province, Afghanistan, provided the stimulus for writing. The winning pupils were awarded their prizes at the famous Lady Haig's Poppy Factory. Sowing the Poppy seed provides films, challenges, posters, poppy seeds and archive footage, as well as activity guides and research activities to support teachers. For more information and to download resources go to: www.poppyscotland.org.uk/education
PRIMARY WINNER The winner was Kirsty Simpson, P7, Hermitage Park Primary School, Edinburgh, with her poem ‘We Meet in the Silence' The judges admired Kirsty's ambitious choice to explore the theme through the struggling memory of a veteran at the time of Remembrance. They praised her control of language and rhythm, the vividness of the vision she gives her character at the end, and the words in the last line which belong to the old man but are ours too. Placing yourself in the shoes of a specific character can allow you to explore feelings in a more direct way in poetry. We Meet in the Silence The silence is painful, Kirsty Simpson
PRIMARY RUNNERS-UP First runner-up was Sam Pointon, P7, St Aloysius College Junior School, Glasgow, with his poem ‘65' The judges thought Sam's poem very original, not only because he put himself in the place of someone else, but because he did it so successfully, conveying the tone of a weary yet anxious soldier. They liked the clipped tone and unusual use of numbers to arrest the ear and eye and convey effectively the soldier's attention to detail, thought-patterns and private hopes and fears. It certainly draws the eye when a poem is visually arresting, and an unusual title makes the reader curious to see what it's all about. 65 1 bomb, 7 days to go, Awaiting the next. The call comes Thinking, thinking and thinking, Find the road, the usual dirty street, I'm only 30; just make it to 31, In memoriam Sergeant Olaf Schmid, bomb disposal expert, died 31 October 2009 Sam Pointon
Second runner-up was Mitchell Hutchison, P5, Hermitage Park Primary School, Edinburgh, with his untitled poem. Entrants were offered three images of modern warfare as a stimulus for poetry, and the judges liked that Mitchell had responded to each very clearly in his three verses. They felt that he had studied each one very carefully in turn and recorded not only his observations but had brought his imagination into play and voiced his feelings of doubt and uncertainty, or certainty, about the stories the images suggested. We chose our stimulus images very carefully and were pleased to see that they'd inspired many young writers. Untitled The cross is made of brass. The book is made of paper. The tank is made of steel. Mitchell Hutchison
PRIMARY COMMENDED POEMS My Golden Shell Case I have a shiny golden shell case There is not a baby's first white tooth Inside is the sound of a thousand guns shooting Joseph Toner Joseph's teacher asked the class to use Kit Wright's poem ‘The Magic Box' as a model for their Remembrance poems. Kit's original Magic Box contains all sorts of amazing and wonderful things and the judges very much liked that Joseph turned this idea on its head and placed in his shell-case distressing scenes and frightened people, sounds and objects - and most impossibly and poignantly, in his first lines, a moment of powerful feeling. It's good fun, and perfectly legitimate to adapt models used by professional poets!
Loss I saw the knife with which you killed, You once held the hand of a child, He conquered many enemy soldiers, but Saskia McCready Saskia wrote and entered this poem for the competition after a visit to the National War Museum to study the artefacts. The judges liked the sense of actual close, personal, sensory observation and feeling she conveyed. The strength of the patterns, repetitions and connections she made in the poem created, they thought, vivid and powerful messages. We're always interested in poems created from research and observation; direct experience can transform the writer's thoughts.
Beached Evil surrounding me Rheanne Heath The judges commended the feeling of tension, anxiety and foreboding Rheanne created in her poem – written about one of the three images we offered as stimulus. In particular, they were intrigued by the ambiguity of the voice she achieved in the later lines: is it the tank or the soldier speaking? It's interesting to explore how not using punctuation can create a very distinct mood......
A Particular Poppy This poppy, Hollie Dow The judges praised the directness and immediacy of the image Hollie created in her poem. One can almost see the single poppy in the young person's hand, and Hollie exploits that simple act and image and thought to great effect. Poppyscotland judges felt that soldiers serving far from home would be particularly moved by Hollie's remembrance poem, in the way that it implies remembrance of the living, as well as the fallen in wars. We wonder if this Hollie experienced this feeling whilst actually choosing a remembrance poppy last year; it feels to the reader as if this was the case.
Robert Wright, S1, James Gillespie's High School, Edinburgh. The judges were unanimous in their choice of Robert's poem as the outright secondary winner this year. They praised his decision to research and explore even more widely than our stimulus images to find his inspiration and a surprising, original and unique source of imagery. They felt his poem demonstrated complex and mature thinking about the nature of war, about life and death, and about hope through the development of powerful and beautiful images. We were delighted at the awards ceremony to see the actual edition of ‘British Birds' Magazine, May 1, 1919 on which he based his poem. Many of the rewards of writing poetry can be found in the process of exploring one's chosen topic, and in thinking ‘outside the box'. BIRDS OF THE BATTLEFIELD Hooded crow, magpie, rook, starling, They find a living in the stricken field, the birds. No danger in no man's land if birds don't fly away. In the stricken field. Inspired by and remembering the words of Capt. Arthur De C. Saverby, F.Z.S., F.R.G.S. from his article in ‘British Birds' Magazine, May 1, 1919 Robert Wright
SECONDARY COMMENDED POEMS War The soldier's face shows dimensions of war, War is a tornado, The soldier's heart is a blood-pumping void War is a jar of chaos spilled Joe Highet The judges admired Joe's four powerful stanzas, each featuring bold, confident and striking metaphors for war. They felt Joe communicated a sense of outrage in the uncompromising stridency of the tone he created.
War The poppies push up through the hardened ground, The bullet embedded, Only war can bring some friendships, The poppy Lucy Walker-Cox The judges felt Lucy had identified a very strong image in the red and black of the poppy, and demonstrated skilful control of this in her creation of a vivid connection with the dead soldier.
The Reason The shower of bullets, the rumble of bombs, Friends out fighting, sick with dread, Anguish, terror, broken hearts, Letters home, too much to say, Hearts stop beating, twilight zone, Sleepless nights and scary days, Remembrance Day, the flowers laid, Rachael Finnigan The judges acknowledged the power of Rachael's poem. An internal monologue, it appeared to them a keen protest lyric and they liked the ‘journeying' quality in its echoing rhythms and repetitions, and in the anticipation of the inevitability of its final destination.
Would You? What do you think of poppies? What do you think life is like at war? How do you feel about death? Could you be a destroyer? Would you have the courage? Would you? Ellen Young The judges did not expect young people to deliver answers to war in their poems and they liked the uncompromising directness of Ellen's poem, and her exploitation of the fact that it is hard to ignore a bold question. They felt Ellen confidently refused to spare her readers, leading them, in each successive stanza through a series of powerful images, suggestions and questions to an unresolved and insistent conclusion. Download the S1-S3 poems here. Download the P4-P7 poems here. Keep an eye on our competitions page for details of how to enter this year.
Who Am I?
Poet Gerry Cambridge led a number of workshops at Gracemount over a period of six months, working with pupils from P7 to Advanced Higher, including pupils for whom English is not their first language. English and library staff from the school visited South Africa to work with pupils at Ogwini and brought back their contributions to the anthology. The result is a rich selection of poems covering themes of personal identity, location within a community, national consciousness and simply what it’s like to be young, living and growing in a changing world. The anthology is available to buy from, Gracemount or SPL, at £5 (further donations are gratefully received!) All proceeds will go to finance a visit to Scotland by pupils from Ogwini. If you’d like to know more about the project or to order copies from the school please contact Barbara Dingwall at Barbara.DINGWALL@gracemount.edin.sch.uk or telephone 0131 664 7440. Hame
Poet Makar Bard
Our most recent edition features poems from 2004-2008 and includes work from Primary and Secondary pupils who took part in some of our regular sessions as well as special events and individual school projects. They worked with poets in a variety of settings, in historic houses, gardens and museums, taking inspiration from photographs, personal belongings, music, colours, incidents and emotions. The selection includes odes and blessings, recipes and puzzles,
there are haikus, Gaelic mesotics and playful one-word poems. They describe
people, places, animals and inanimate objects; they imagine war, the
future and the past; they play with languages and perspectives. Inspired? Get Writing!
This is the second
anthology to be published of the short stories and poems inspired by
works of art in the collections of the National Galleries of Scotland. |
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Poppy Poetry, a competition for pupils in P4-7 and S1-3, is part of Sowing the Poppy seed – Poppyscotland's three-year education project that aims to revolutionise the way pupils learn about veterans, remembrance and conflict. 
SECONDARY WINNER
This anthology features just some of the work produced as part
of a project which aimed to bring together the talents of a wide range
of young people in an expanding and outward-looking community: Gracemount
High School; Gracemount, Burdiehouse and Gilmerton Primary Schools;
Kaimes School, and their South African partner, Ogwini High School,
in Umlazi, a township close to Durban.
Almost six thousand – six thousand – entries were received
to Learning and Teaching Scotland’s poetry competition for the
Year of Homecoming. This anthology contains one hundred of the best entries
received, from young people aged 5 to 18, living across Scotland, all
of whom interpreted the theme in a way that was unique to them.
Every four years we gather together some
of the poems produced in Scottish Poetry Library workshops during that
time, and publish them in this anthology. 
The inspired? get writing! creative writing competition is a
well-established annual event now, having been launched by the National
Galleries of Scotland, the English-Speaking Union