MCBF Round Robin: Poetry Together

By Martin Kratz

Have you ever wondered what Father Christmas does for the rest of the year? Given that the Manchester Children’s Book Festival is only on for ten days in the summer, you might wonder the same of us. But unlike Raymond Brigg’s Father Christmas, we aren’t on holiday. In fact, this autumn we have been particularly busy with our cross-generational poetry competition Poetry Together. 

Poetry Together is part of our wider campaign to promote children’s poetry, Let in the Stars. It is unique in that the poems you enter need to be written by two people: one of you has to be over 18, and the other has to be under 18.

We had a wonderful launch on November 23rd at Plymouth Grove Primary School in Manchester. The pupils’ stunning performance of their own poetry left me more than a little speechless (not great, given that I had to talk about the competition). Poet Mandy Coe had visited the school previously to work with the children, but even she was amazed at the unexpected directions the children had taken their writing in. It was particularly nice to chat to pupils afterwards and hear their ideas for the competition. They were so ambitious and even included an idea for a bilingual poem between grandmother and grandson taking it in turns to write a verse each. 

Thank you so much to the staff and students at the school for giving us such an energising start. I can’t wait to see all the entries. In the meantime, here are all the photos from that wonderful day. Don't forget, if you have photos of your own to share we would love to see them!

Human Rights (by Harvey Milner)

I’m walking down the street
Children left and right
Some are blind, some are deaf
and some are nearly dead.
When I walk down the street
Children just stare with waterfilled eyes
I can see the sorrow through their pupils
besides my lucky self in the reflection.

I walked down the street children with guns, AK-47’s in two hands
A colt – 45 in a small holster to the side of the leg ready to be drawn any minute.

 I was walking down the street
14 year old girls married and holding hands with middle – aged men.

Darkness (by Caroline L, Birkenhead High School Academy)
Can consume all hope, all light, all we receive
Except a life where wisdom empowers you
To push, to strive to be what you thought you couldn’t be for
Being who you are.

Don’t take yourself to strive towards
A body or darkness.
For to take education for granted
Means that your life will be taken
For granted.

Be what you can, and never stop running, never stop striving
And never stop crawls towards life.
For you never know you’ve wasted it for too long.
Even if you believe life is wasted,
You deserve hope, you deserve dreams.

Education (by Lucy Jackson, Birkenhead High School Academy for Girls)

Education, according to oxford dictionary ‘it is the process of recieiving or giving systematic instruction, especially in a school or university’. According to the human rights act of 1948, it states that every child is entitled to go to school and learn.

On Tuesday 4^th October 2012 Malala Yousafzai was shot on her bus ride to school, both her and her farther would campaign for the right for girls to go to school.

Whilst reading her book I noticed that never once, did her opinion change, she never lost sight of her aim. In her speech she said ‘let us remember: one book, one pen, one child,  and one teacher  can change the world.

During my visit to the human rights workshop my friend sarah said ‘it’s sad that people appreciate a child with a gun, more than a child with a pen.

We are the children of the future, one future is blank with 61 million children still not going to school. All future should be brighter than the starts, as the tarmac on the roads.