Message from the Head

of Teaching and Learning

‘Slam’ or ‘Traditional’

Poetry Perfected: A Celebration of Talent at KWS

In the 27th June Edition, I wrote about Year 9 ‘changing the narrative’ and discovering their ‘inner awesomeness’ as a result. Although writing poetry was outside of their comfort zone, a significant number of Year 9 students composed poetry and entered the Red Room Poetry Object 2018 Competition. Red Room Poetry is Australia’s leading organisation for the creation and commissioning of new poetry by established and emerging poets as well as students. This term, we discovered that two of our students had been shortlisted - The winners will be announced during a live-stream video event on Thursday 6 December 2018, in partnership with Museum of Arts and Applied Sciences (MAAS). Winning poems will come alive in an animated short film to be screened during the Winners Announcement and released in cinemas Australia in December 2018. In the meantime, I wanted to celebrate and share with you all, the two poems that have been shortlisted – ‘Mahogany Bones’ by Maddie Hook and ‘Turning Point’ by Lila Pearce. They really are a reflection of outstanding talent but even more impressive, they are a result of the students’ real passion and perseverance – qualities that determine success.

Mahogany Bones - By Maddie Hook

When the piano-maker crafted my grandfather

Gently bending his mahogany bones

He was not constructing, he was creating

Bringing him to life,

He gave to me a guardian

With a life most complicated

Whose love never outdated

But who now lies in the ground ill-fated.

When I was young, I’d dance upon his golden feet.

Neat, petite, my path to the afterlife.

They sat there, quaint, to prolong the sound

Of the piano, but could not prolong his life.

My grandfather’s laugh roars and groans,

Rattling his mahogany bones

Like stones

And the tones of his voice echo as he sings,

The sounds flowing grandly through his strings.

Mother pats my head and smiles and says, 'My dear, Pa’s dead, you see.'

But as I close my eyes, hold his ivory hands, the music shapes his face

And I face the fact that though he’s gone, she’s wrong

He’s still here with me.

The notes he sings, changing in modulation

A complication of detailed intonations and different tongues

For the songs of others whose remain unsung.

My grandfather’s laugh roars and groans

Rattling his mahogany bones

Like stones

And the tones that he sings makes the music truly sting

I know now, he soars with new wings.

Turning Point - By Lila Pearce

a simple pile

of paper and ink

unassuming at first,

'mediocre', you think.

You’re wrong. This saga

of courage and strife

will first change your mind

and then your whole life

eight days in

you’ve finished the book

you’re a bird to the sky

a fish on a hook

and you can’t know it yet

but this is the start

of a sparkling new era

your young life’s best part

six years in

you’re smarter and sadder

the work’s a bit harder

the world’s a bit badder

but you still have your memories

through trouble and strife

when a book changed your mind

and then saved your life.

and you’re now stepping out

to a bright new day

you’ll change the world

once you know the right way

books were your refuge

your reason to live

they gave you so much

now it’s your turn to give.

Mrs Serena Lewis

Head of Teaching and Learning