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 16-18.

words to be shouted across a battlefield
by Freya Beer
after ‘Shout Outs (Radio Edit)’ by Gboyega Odubanjo

i have.           so you’d better not.           and i don’t want.           anyway.

          you look like.           and i miss.           we were young, once.

gangly limbs and gummy smiles.           i wish.           again.

          home so far.           i can barely.           but still.           i wish.

look.           look.           put down.

                              if you.           then i will too.

O, my country, my love
by Saba Ghandi

rising and falling
a fickle seam whirling around
undone.

big black birds circle round a carcass their
noise, static in the wind, echoes in the
folds and crevices of the
barren earth
rubbing back and forth

rising and falling

these gentle waves subdue me quite
peacefully nestled
like small garnets the rubble
they sparkle in the sun
as it sets forever

rising and falling

i can only stroke this curve with
the tip of my finger
softly
or i will break this moment with
my bloody hands

rising and falling

everything is temporary
but then why
do i still feel your
destruction
throbbing in my bones

a fickle seam
tearing me apart

rising and falling

undone.

Salama
by Zayn Kubba

My eyes sink deep into their sockets,
wild war in the air,
wild war in the air
from the scary outside.

A content sky grasps three
trees’ pathways,
but where is God?

Dilapidated buildings
beneath, as my dusty
window allows a peek –

Distant screams. I hold onto Salama*
and cover my ears, when a friend’s
house is dismantled repeatedly.

Tears bathe my cheeks, mother and father
argue by the kitchen sink…whilst Khawf*
spreads through my street.

I play with Salama, she comforts me –
waves of calm fill my body;
I inhale slowly but struggle to exhale.

My eyes sink deeper into their sockets,
I squeeze Salama’s head gently
with one hand, and reach out to
my dead brother with the other.

*Salama – Peace in Arabic

*Khawf – Fear in Arabic