JanineWorld Poetry Day is celebrated on 21 March, and was declared by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 1999, “with the aim of supporting linguistic diversity through poetic expression and increasing the opportunity for endangered languages to be heard” Its purpose is to promote the reading, writing, publishing, and teaching of poetry throughout the world and, as the original UNESCO declaration says, to “give fresh recognition and impetus to national, regional, and international poetry movements”. ( Wikipedia)
The theme for World Poetry Day 2024 is “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants.” This theme is about how famous poets from the past have helped make poetry important in different cultures
Here’s a selection from our East Leeds community
By Georgie Kay
Deeper than the Ocean
I am deeper than the ocean you say you would swim for me,
You could survive the tide of the sea but not the current inside of me.
I am higher than the birds sent with colours of the rainbow glistening on their wings,
I sit atop of the rainbow and watch them soar.
I’m simpler than 1+1 but you need to be able to do the sums to find the equation and times it by 5 to get near to an equal of what i am.
by Nina Bah
Photo by Nina Bah
A son and his mother
By Hargen age 14
A Son and his mother
The mother does not know of the pain to come
The son is too innocent for this world
She has done no harm
He has done no wrong
And still you set off into her home
And still you ride your boat
Still you destroy her life
Still you lower the rope
Her son is beside her
His mother is next to him
But the water around turns red
And then there is a painful pull
She lets out a sob
He cries out in pain
He is wriggling in agony
His mother weeping beside him
You leave her behind crying
You take him away screaming
And the last they see before they are separated
Is each other’s tears and your grinning face
The Cyborg Child
by Darla Wilson
An orange bowl made of glass,
Connected to tubes short and long,
Wobbly shaped and surreal,
Shooting water spray gushing past,
An eccentric static baby girl,
Her staring eyes of icy green,
Cold in the water haven,
A missing chunk of her head adding to reflected gash,
Of violet lumen blue red and neon,
Her parents were conversing harsh,
Like snow in voids left unspoken,
They are looking haggard and craven,
A doctor with an athletic brain,
Dared to make a bold suggestion,
A technical decision of implants perceptron,
Connecting constructs to make a cognizant chip,
Childish brain turning metal wheels in the head,
Into cylindrical forms of android perception,
To think our child could know of,
The purist mathetical concepts,
Her Mother and Father exclaimed,
But still be our human sprog,
Not steely machining tubing bent,
In digital deconstructive thinking,
Meantime the white fishy curious kid,
Lay zombie looking with eyes still,
Inciting dread from stark unblinking,
The surgeons got stuck into turning screws,
Fine precision adjustments were made,
Codes in Python spark exploding lead,
For lightning orbs in new electric jade,
The creators of the human part of girl,
Laid thoughts and words on their cyborg child,
Assured and confident the doctors cried,
“She will know and love you as a daughter should”,
“Darling I love you do you feel well?”
Mum to the babe with a metal cranium,
Priscilla was shy in first peeking through,
Blue orbs in lime green titanium,
Then an expression best left unsaid,
Crossed her little visage of charm,
She grabbed and twisted her Mother’s mouth,
Until it bled,
Pouring forth crimson shock and harm,
“It’s just a glitch!” The medics faltered in their words,
“But is her ARRAY okay?”,
The Dad was in disarray too and be careful you,
Before you complete your cyborg child,
The decision trees are so complex,
And the code FOR loops wicked wild.
Up On The Roof
Priority viewing of the world around
Seeing what’s moving or still on the ground
Birds are watching wondering why
I’m sharing part of their perch in the sky
Clouds like wool, sky so blue
This is the place for a perfect view
Give me a book, a drink and a chair, and
I’ll see the world in peace, safe and without care.
by Nancy Elwell
17/1/2024
A place I know
There’s a place I know
That only I can find
It’s found somewhere
In the depths of my mind
It’s a place where the sun can shine
A bright brilliant blue
And I’ll do whatever
My heart desires me to do
And if I were to take you there
In the place I can call my own
Would you let me reside there
And call it my home
You could visit sometimes
When I’m feeling alone
And I’ll show you the sky
Of a bright pink tone
I will be happy in this place of my own
But once in while,
When I feel all alone
Make a promise you’ll come
To this place I know
That only I can find
That’s found somewhere
In the depths of my mind
By Hargun
1. I got out of bed and I stretched and I bent and I felt
Supple enough to get to the bathroom and shave and wash and
Get to the kitchen for fruit and toast and honey and coffee and
e-mail a bit, learn Italian a bit, and then read a bit and then
Get on my bike it’s along the flat and then over the hills and then
Lunch in the pub with a pint and a bit and then
Cycle home for a shower and a ziz and then
Read a bit, play the flute a bit, and then
Pasta and salad and cheese and wine and then a
Wee dram or two with Match of the day it’s been a
Perfect day and now
Bed.
2. When I woke up this morning my legs gave a warning they
Wouldn’t bend well I could tell the day would be a
Strain there’s a pain in the knees I must
Ease myself slowly
Slowly get dressed ow that hurt I must take care be
Aware of how much I can do can’t do it’s
Mainly the knees I can get my
Trousers on if I ease the knees in
Slowly.
By Roger Harington
