To celebrate this year’s poetry competitions and all of the hard work and creativity the Causley Team has put in over the past months, we would like to share a blogpost from our valued team member Rita. Besides managing our social media accounts, she has taken part in organising the poetry competitions. In the following piece, Rita shares her experiences working with the Causley Trust to make these initiatives happen.

Working for the Charles Causley Trust: Peace and Poetry

My work for the Charles Causley Trust has been nothing if not rewarding. Organising the poetry competitions this year has allowed me to work on practical skills and also find fulfilment in knowing I am doing this work for people who have their hearts in the right place.

My hometown is Porto, Portugal, exactly 1900 km away from Launceston, where Charles Causley lived and died. I stumbled upon him through the trust in his name, in an attempt to find a place where my love for culture would be valued. It became immediately clear to me that the driving motor for the Charles Causley Trust is love – for the author’s legacy, for art, for poetry, and for a sense of community. Although I never had the pleasure of knowing Charles personally, I very quickly felt that I knew him through the words of the people working through the impossible to keep his name alive.

Being put in the front seat of the poetry competition planning was daunting at first, as the responsibility to carry on Charles’ ethos weighed heavy. However, when one truly believes in what one does, even the scariest work becomes worthwhile. Besides, I always had other team members in the passenger seat of the ride, taking the wheel whenever my eyes became too heavy to drive.

The poetry competitions are more than a test of people’s ability to string verses together. They are meant, as is everything the trust does, as a reflection of what Charles believed in. Breaking boundaries, reaching towards all corners of the Earth and uniting them through art – that is what the Charles Causley International Poetry Competition stands for. Awakening the minds of young people to the value of the written word – that is what the Charles Causley Young Persons Poetry Competition aims to do. And the theme of both these contests – Peace – is the ultimate echo of Charles’ beliefs.

‘Oh mother my mouth is full of stars/ As cartridges in the tray/ My blood is a twin-branched scarlet tree/And it runs all runs away,’ Charles wrote. And the experiences he wrote of unfortunately repeat themselves cyclically. In a world tainted by bloodshed, Charles clung to words and their power to create ripples. This is what the trust asks of all of you this year: create ripples, be daring, and seek and take active steps towards Peace.