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Latymer Upper Student Sophia Wins First Place Poetry Prize at Chiswick Book Fair
Congratulations to Latymer Upper Student Sophia, who won first place in the Chiswick Book Fair Poetry Prize, for the beautifully written: “Someone” which is published below.
Someone
By Sophia, Year 8
Someone, picked up a pen
And they wrote a poem and called it hope
Because that’s what it was about
And they wrote about their life and how lucky they were and how their parents loved them and how their friends were there for them
and that in their life, they would never need to hope because everything was perfect the way it was
Another person, probably thousands of miles away
Picked up a pen
And wrote a poem and called it hope
Because that’s what it was about
And they wrote about how difficult their life was and how their parents would fight and their grades would go down
And how most days, it felt like in their life, there was never any hope for them and there never would be
Another person, this time on the other side of the world
Picked up a pen
And wrote a poem and called it hope
Because that’s what it was about
And they wrote about all the other people in the world
About those who did have hope and about those who didn’t
And how even if they didn’t have it, they would find it,
They would find all the hope in the universe
And share it with all the people who didn’t have hope
And show all the people who didn’t need it how to give it to others
Sophia writes about winning first place:
“I left Spanish early last Friday to high fives and cheers of ‘good luck’ from friends. I was heading to the Chiswick Book Festival’s prize giving for the Young People’s Poetry Competition. I’d been told I’d won a prize for my poem I’d entered in last year’s school poetry competition, but I didn’t know which prize.
I was a bit nervous as I arrived at St Michael and All Angels Church where the prizegiving was taking place. One of the helpers there asked me to sit in a very particular place in a pew, at one end, and as she organised all the other winners in a very particular order, I realised we must be sitting in prize order. I was at one end so I wondered, was I first or last? To add to the pressure I suddenly saw two familiar faces in the audience, trying to get my attention. It was my great uncle and aunt, they had arrived unexpectedly from Washington DC. No pressure!
The boy sitting next to me said he thought I had won first prize but I didn’t dare get my hopes up. As we watched the younger year groups go up for their prizes we realised the person sitting at my end of the pew always won first prize, that’s when my nerves disappeared and I allowed myself to feel a little excited. Before stepping onto the stage and as my name was being announced as winner, I was thinking Miss Temple would be pleased, and my parents.
It was all very unexpected but I was so excited and happy to win first prize.”
Author: Rebecca Thornton
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