‘Refuge’ Poetry Mosaic Workshop Reward
To celebrate National Poetry Day on 4 October, the Litfest ‘Refuge’ Poetry Mosaic was launched. Pupils in English were invited to submit their poems on the theme ‘Refuge’. Year 7 groups were asked to explore this idea in all its forms, as they read and learn about refugees and the lives of displaced people across the globe. We were thrilled to read so many fabulous and sensitive entries on this subject, all submitted voluntarily.
Congratulations to all who submitted a poem, the reward of which was an amazing workshop with Poet, Caroline Bird on Thursday 5 Oct. Julia T and Christina D’s poems were chosen to be part of the opening gala event at The Storey, with Caroline as MC, on the evening of 5 Oct, and special commendations were given to Jacob A, Naomi R and Eden H, all of which can be viewed here – https://litfest.org/refuge-selected/
All accepted poems have been added to the mosaic, which can be viewed here – https://litfest.org/refuge-ripley/
After the event, all submitted and accepted poems will remain online in the ‘Poetry Mosaic’ as a permanent resource.
During the workshop, Caroline demonstrated her engagement skills, drawing the pupils into her world and stirring their imagination to reach further and use great depth of emotion in their descriptive language. The group were engrossed from the very beginning, working as a unit to develop and create poems by ‘thinking in pictures’.
After reading one of her own works ‘A Love Song’, Caroline explained how she had turned the process of divorce into a person in her description and asked the pupils to take a feeling and turn it into a person. The result was astounding as pupils created ‘people’ from emotions, living in unexpected places, behaving in unexpected ways.
Thank you Caroline for inspiring and encouraging our young people and well done to everyone who submitted their work. The English staff are very, very proud of you all.
