The Winners of the Young Person’s Poetry Competition have been announced and in this post we’d like to share the winning poems in the age group 11-15.

Girls Just Wanna Have Peace
by Faith Lydall

She was eleven when she learned the green belt was not just for walkers, but stalkers,
Wolf whistles and shouts of ‘give us a smile’ followed her home
She crossed to the empty side of the road – not worth it for a shortcut
Chastised for not walking with a friend or charging her phone
Because boys will be boys
And girls just wanna have fun, don’t they?

She was thirteen when she learned about the thigh gap
That we need tutorials and make up for flawless skin
Girls should starve themselves to keep their stomach flat
‘Boys only go for girls who are thin’
Because boys will be boys
And girls just wanna have fun, don’t they?

She was eighteen when she learned to go with friends to the toilet
And to never risk walking alone through the park
Adding to a taxi’s profit, tired of being vigilant
Never wearing a short skirt and heels after dark
Because boys will be boys
And girls just wanna have fun, don’t they?

She was thirty when she learned about the pay difference
Bigger than the spread of a man’s legs on the bus
She’s ‘bossy’ if she displays her ideas or confidence
And no one like a woman who makes a fuss
Because boys will be boys
And girls just wanna have fun, don’t they?

From birth she’s learned that
Men react, women over-react
Men are passionate, women are emotional
Men are smart, women are lucky
But most importantly, boys will be boys should be better
And girls just wanna have fun peace

Coffee and Chocolate
by Daya Newcombe

I want my house to smell of coffee and chocolate.
Sweet enough for your mind to wander,
Strong enough to pull you down.
Sunlight will come through the windows in
sharp rays, blurred around the edges.
dust will dance and float in pools,
illuminated by the rising star.
The passing city noise will be a backdrop to each slow morning.
I shall watch it from my window.

I want my house to smell of coffee and chocolate.
The smell will travel in lush waves from my kitchen countertops
Engraved in to the wood top surfaces.
And I will lay in bed as the sun lands on my eyes,
An audience to the dust suspended in its performance.
My cd player will work overtime as I listen to album after album,
Beside me, a sweet bouquet of roses lay in vase from an old friend.
I will think of a boy I loved or an old abandoned hobby,
And as time stands still,
I will remember the life I have lived.
And perhaps a life that could have been.

The news will tell no stories of destruction.
No explosions half way around the world with empty threats to bring them closer,
No news reporter introducing despairing headlines,
No images of people standing on ledges, one word away from the end.
There will be no fatal events to ‘bring out the good in people’.
People will simply be good.

Only then, will my house smell of coffee and chocolate.
And there in the sunlight, in a futile and desperate hope for peace,
I will lay.
With my cd player and my roses,
The sound of traffic in background
And the thoughts of every moment I have lived.

I will make coffee and eat chocolate and sit in peace.
Before I turn on the news,
Before the cd ends,
Before the roses die.

And for one moment of one slow morning in the future,
In a quiet, strange melancholic happiness,
A small pocket of peace.
Neatly encased in tragedy.

Scott’s Quay
by Frieda McNeill

A ripple of water
blessed by the sun
The cry of a crow in
the distance.
A heron is waiting
Still,
Silent,
An ancient wind washes over
as the world breathes.
Then all is still
again.