Hello,
I hope you are well and having a wonderful 2016.
Something I haven’t really shared with you is I was lucky enough to be commended in the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2015- unless you know me personally in which case… I just need 5 more minutes?
On 8th October 2015, I traveled up to London to an award ceremony in the Southbank Centre where I met a bunch of wonderful poets and received a handful of prizes including a membership to the Poetry Society *squeals*. We stayed in London for the rest of the day to see the National Poetry Day live event which was incredible. I got to see poets such as Patience Agbabi and Imtiaz Dharker perform as well as receive a talk by the amazing installation artist Robert Montgomery. It was an amazing opportunity.
Anyway, I thought I would share the poem I entered with you. I started writing this at 10:47 pm one night (woah crazy) and kept writing (and rewriting) until 3 am while listening to the rain on my window. It is quite stream of conscious-y and in all honesty, I am not a huge fan but oh well 😉
Enjoy.
. . .
There’s nothing comforting
about this storm;
I’ve learnt not to care much
for these warped raindrop
kind of nights when spring breeze
competes with itself to the
point of crescendo.
The howling wind is
a faulty lullaby now,
all creaking gates and no rhythm.
Sunken bones succumb
to the cement of a mattress-
I shift slightly,
cover my ears as if I were an infant
with eyes like cracked windows,
ajar doors,
screeching car alarms.
They will leave nothing about
me a “secret”.
It’s 10:47 pm
and by no means late.
Still an aching sense of absence quakes
profusely inside of my chest;
I can never seem to shake this feeling
that something is missing.
I am too often still awake when
3 am pervades across my room
like familiar perfume,
clinging to my skin.
I wear tiredness like an oversized jumper-
it wasn’t meant for me but
I guess somewhere between
the first few moments in darkness
and midnight thunderstorms,
I’ve convinced myself that
it’s the only thing that fits.
.
poetry by me 
congratulations
Than you:)
Being commended in the Foyle is a real achievement, congratulations, and attending the awards ceremony surrounded by a world of poetry must have been a great experience for you and I hope it leads on to greater things. The poem is good, its sense of an unfurling night during which external phenomena become converted into internal response is good. I like the notion of “an aching sense of absence quakes deep inside my chest” and its evocation of timeless yearning.