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Poets' corner: The Foyle Young Poets Award - News, Books - The Independent

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Poets' corner: The Foyle Young Poets Award

Andrew Johnson and Jonathan Owen speak to the 15 winners

Britain's new generation of poets have little time for TS Eliot's gloomy assertion that a literary life is "a mug's game". Fired by the power of the internet to spread their words, the nation's teenage versifiers form the vanguard of an upsurge that has seen the number of entries to Britain's longest-running competition for young poets soar.

A record-breaking 20,510 poems from 11- to 17-year-olds around the country were entered in this year's Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award. It is the highest number of entries in the competition's 13-year history.

The 15 winners of this year's competition will not be announced until National Poetry Day on Thursday. Here, however, we publish exclusive extracts from the winning poems.

Some "show a directness to the reader that adult writers would envy", said Jane Draycott, one of the judges. She added: "This generation think differently about exposure and publicity, because they expose themselves in all kinds of ways through Facebook and YouTube. I don't think they'll feel precious about their early work in years to come, and that's amazing."

Winners from the 15-17 age category will be sent on a special week-long retreat at the Arvon Foundation at The Hurst, set in 30 acres of woodland in the Clun Valley, Shropshire. Younger winners will be mentored by poets who will visit their schools to help the budding writers.

And the future of the competition was boosted last week with the news that the Foyle Foundation has committed to another three years of funding. Judith Palmer, chairwoman of the National Poetry Society, which organises the competition, said: "Older poets often spend decades unlearning all the things they've been taught to do," she said. "These poems are really impressive. There isn't the imitation of other poets you might expect."

Luke Kennard, another of the judges, added: "Teenagers are not afraid of over-reaching yet; whereas 19- to 22-year-olds are so afraid of being pretentious that they hold back and start falling back on clichés."

Picture Book of the Month: Fruits

May 2009
FRUITS
By ValerieBloom
Illustrations by David Aztell
Publisher: Macmillan Books, 32 pages
THIS delightful poem, written in West Indian dialect, must be read aloud for maximum effect. A young girl and her baby sister discover a whole lot of fruit - starting from "half a pawpaw" and ending with "ten banana" - and gobble up as much as they can - with the girl taking the lion's share. The bananas finally get the better of her: "Mek me lie down on me bed, quick. Lawd, ah feeling really sick." The children's expressions are a joy to behold, and the whole book, from the jaunty rhythm of the poem to the vibrant colours of the illustrations, just oozes a sunny vibe - it's guaranteed to put a huge grin on your face.

The New British Laureate

Carol Ann Duffy has been named British poet laureate, taking over from Andrew Motion.

Read more here.

Words, Wide Night by Carol Ann Duffy

Somewhere on the other side of this wide night
and the distance between us, I am thinking of you.
The room is turning slowly away from the moon.

This is pleasurable. Or shall I cross that out and say
it is sad? In one of the tenses I singing
an impossible song of desire that you cannot hear.

La lala la. See? I close my eyes and imagine the dark hills I would have to cross
to reach you. For I am in love with you

and this is what it is like or what it is like in words.

Whatever Next!

By DAPHNE LEE

From Tots to Teens, StarMag

FIRST Jacqueline Wilson's book, My Sister Jodie, is criticised because it contains a word deemed unsuitable for children (this leads to Wilson deciding to replace the word). Then a poem is removed from the GCSE curriculum because it might encourage those studying for the exam to commit acts of violence. The mind boggles. I keep thinking it's some sort of joke. How could people be so dense as to miss the point being made by Wilson and, now, the poet.

The poem that GCSE candidates will no longer be reading is Carol Ann Duffy's Education for Leisure. Written in the first person, it describes a day in the life of a restless and destructive youth. The youth describes how he/she squashes a fly and flushes a goldfish down the toilet. It ends with the youth grabbing a bread-knife and going for a walk. No, it doesn't actually describe the youth stabbing anyone. Nor does it doesn't contain a refrain that goes, "Go out and kill! Go out and kill, kill, kill! KILL!!!"

Poetic License

I interviewed the poet Bernice Chauly several months ago for StarMag and the article is out today. Unfortunately, it's a much shorter version than the original piece I submitted - a real shame as Chauly's answers would, I believe, interest anyone who enjoys her work and also anyone interested in creative writing and in the local literary scene. However, you can read the full, unedited interview below:

Bernice Chauly

Interview by DAPHNE LEE

SOME of her poems make me feel uncomfortable,“ said a friend of mine to whom I’d given Bernice Chauly’s poetry collection, Book of Sins.

She didn’t mean that the poems were bad, simply that she felt that they revealed things about her - secret, painful things that she never thought any one else would share let alone understand.

Chauly’s poems are deeply personal. They may or may not be autobiographical in detail, but the stories they tell feel like they were shaped by real, not simply imagined emotions, and of course memories. They are Chauly’s emotions, memories and stories, but they also speak to and for women the world over. They are familiar tales, but, filtered through the voice of an individual, they defy the cliches of everyday experience and become significant, compelling and unique.

This is Chauly’s second collection of poems. Her first, going there and coming back, appeared in 1997. More than a decade between books isn’t surprising when you consider what a full and busy life Chauly leads. She juggles motherhood, teaching (at the School of Performance and Media in Sunway University College), writing, organising spoken word events and the occasional acting gig. No wonder she often looks tense and tired.

Chauly supports her life’s passions (creative writing, photography and her two daughters) by taking on more practical assignments. Although romantic, she’s too smart and too responsible and loving a parent to consider going the route of the tortured, starving artist. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t suffer for her art. In fact, as a woman and a mother, I found many of her poems painfully touching. I can only imagine what she must have felt writing them.

She confirms that “Some were easier to write than others …. It’s cathartic most of the time, a release of many sorts and levels. It's like ‘Ok, I've written about it, now its done, I've let it go, I can move on".

Of course, Chauly is not the first writer whose work is in some way a result of conflict. Many of the world’s finest artists led turbulent lives or lived during turbulent times. Chauly talks about Aristotle's Poetics, which “discusses tragedy as one of the fundamental cores of poetry.” She says, “Artists are inspired by their own conflicts and tragedies - whether it rages within the depths of their hearts or whether it rages on the streets. Conflict creates drama, if there is no conflict, there is no drama, no story.”

Local Rhymes from Past Times

Reason to rhyme

TOTS TO TEENS
By DAPHNE LEE

A LARGE colourful book caught my eye in a local bookstore last week. Sayang: Pantun & Seloka Kanak-Kanak (MPH Publishing, 96 pages, ISBN: 978-9833698660 ) is a collection of old Malay nursery rhymes and songs, compiled by Azah Aziz and illustrated by Dzulkafli Buyong.

I recognised many of the rhymes in this book (for example Timang Tinggi-tinggi, Oh Bangau! and Gendang Gendut) from my childhood, , but I also noticed the exclusion of some of my favourites, like Waktu Fajar Saya Bangun, Bangun Pagi and Tektek Bunyi Hujan.

Still, reading the book was quite a nostalgic experience. Furthermore, the illustrations reminded me of a batik art calendar I was given when I was in primary school. The pictures in that calendar depicted farming and kampung scenes and absolutely fascinated me. I used to weave countless stories around those pictures and Dzulkafli's batik-style drawings brought fond memories of the days when a tattered calendar could keep me amused for hours (and days) on end.

The Right Words, In the Right Order

What was it I once said about how poetry can make you cry, and give you wings too? It can also improve your sex life. Or so I've been told ...

Introducing the Man

Reading his poems in public isn't Shahril Nizam's favourite thing to do, but he's making more of an effort to be seen and heard now that he has published his first book (of illustrated poems).

Even before the book (If Only), Shahril had a following thanks to his blog on which he posted his work, (he recently wiped the site clean for reasons even he isn’t entirely clear about, but thinks he’ll start posting again soon), but he tended to avoid poetry readings. He’s reading quite regularly now – most recently at WayangKata IV, No Black Tie’s regular poetry gig.