Gill Curtis Poetry Award Winners

Adult Winner - John Nicholds

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A Day in the Garden

 

 I’m sitting out here in the garden,

I look forward to this all year through,

The weather is warm and quite pleasant,

The days I can do this are few.

 

I’ve finished the weeding and pruning,

Mowed the lawn to with an inch of its life,

It’s time to relax and chill-out now,

Forget all life’s troubles and strife.

 

I’ve brought out a book and a lager,

Which I like to do now and again,

What’s that, a spot, no it can’t be?

Oh Sod! It has started to rain.

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Adult Runner Up - Irene Audrey Wright

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Glad to be Me

 

A walk in the park when the day’s just begun

Mist giving way to the bright golden sun

Tales told by children; animated, excited

Punctuated by laughter; infectious, delighted

Line dancing, striving to achieve a goal

Great fun, good exercise for body and soul

Picking out melodies on uke or guitar

Catching up with friends in a local bar

These all make me happy, they give me a buzz

But nothing can do it the way singing does

Singing’s so joyous, it lifts spirits higher 

A feeling intensified when part of a choir

With everyone singing from the bottom of their heart

I feel so proud to be a part

And there in moments of ecstasy

I’m so glad to be alive, so glad to be me.

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Under 18's Winner - Nathan Eze, age 8

 

What Makes Me Happy?

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Tag Rugby makes me happy.
Tag Rugby is as rough as football.
It is as hard as a ball.
The ball screams as it gets thrown,
Landing safely in my waiting hands.

Ice cream makes me happy,
As happy as I’ll ever be.
Ice cream is as tasty as vanilla,
Dancing happily in my mouth.
Oh, what a treat it is!

Pizza makes me happy,
My favourite is Pepperoni and Cheese.
My treats, any time any day.
Just a slice would do
The best flavour that will ever be! 

 

Gummy Bears makes me happy,
As happy as I’ll ever be!
White Gummy Bears are my favourite
They look so gummy and chewy
White Gummy Bears are the best!

Art makes me happy
It is colourful and nice,
As the ideas pop in my mind.
I just like to draw
All because It’s fun!

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Under 18's Runner Up - Shelby Owen, age 11

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What Makes Me Happy

 

Reading makes me happy

Some books are fancy

Some are full of imagination

Others have character’s deep in conversation

 

My friends make me laugh

We have a lot of memories caught in photographs

They make me smile with such joy

And every moment I enjoy.

 

My family look after me

My Mum makes me my tea

My siblings share their stuff

And my dad fills my heart with love.

 

Music also makes me jump and dance

And sometimes makes my sister prance

I love to sing along

To all the beautiful songs.

 

This is what makes me happy.

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Highly Commended - Martin Brown

Busy

 

The sun settles down to an idle sort of glow

Time’s feeling drowsy and enjoys going slow

A timid breeze wavers, made fainter by the hush

As I’m picking currants from my redcurrant bush.

 

A petal from a foxglove tumbles to the ground

A bee sips from borage with a satisfied sound

It roams from flower to flower in a lazy kind of rush

While I’m picking currants from my redcurrant bush.

 

A blackbird eyes me up, hoping for a treat

Ants on a mission track around my feet

The bee probes the lavender with the gentlest kind of touch

But I’m picking currants from my redcurrant bush.

 

There are cars in the distance, there are voices nearer by

All of them drowned out by the humming of a fly.

What the wide world is doing doesn’t matter very much,

I’m busy picking currants from my redcurrant bush.

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Highly Commended - Maxine Burns

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What Makes Me Happy

 

                                    Barefoot on grass. Snow.

                                    Cool spring days. Blossom, pink and frothy

                                    smelling like weddings.

                                    Pointy church steeples, feeling for heaven.

                                    A dog running with a ball to play.

                                    Long hot summer days. Wine.

                                                This makes me happy.

 

                                    A play and a book. A song.

                                    My funny cat, purring, lazy on my lap,

                                    she doesn’t speak, but she says a lot.

                                    A bench under a green shady tree.

                                    Sharing small talk with a fox

                                    on hot sunny days. Wine.

                                                This makes me happy.

 

                                    Thomas, Owen and Plath. A garden,

                                    bursting with colour, smelling

                                    like paradise.

                                    A swim in the ocean, silent, alone, thinking,

                                    Linking thoughts for a rhyme

                                    for hot, sunny days. Wine.

                                               

Thinking of what makes me happy

                                                makes me happy.

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