by Shreya Ganesh Kumar

The Pidgeon Prize for Literature, celebrating excellent writing at Caterham School, has been awarded to Shreya Ganesh Kumar for her poem ‘Renaissance’ . Chosen from all of the pieces of writing submitted to this magazine, including those selected for publication, Shreya’s poem, full of paradox and ambiguity, finds the subtle balance between the delicate and the daring . In this moving and finely-wrought poem, exquisite language and technique are used with finesse to create a tumbling sense of unravelling, belying the tight control that is both subject and craft, in a narrative that leads us tentatively to a sense of hope .

RENAISSANCE

20th March ~ the spring equinox

Shreya Ganesh Kumar P D G E O I N PRIZ E FOR LI T E R ATURE201 9 WINNER Shreya Ganesh Kumar RENAISSANCE

There is a girl: transfixing, flawless to eyes flicking over her, holding sharp secrets; she suffers silently in her softness. Her gentle fingers untangle, she reaches out ~ the feather playing puppet to the thoughts dancing in dainty disorder upstairs. Her cuts weep sweet nectar, stinging, she cascades downwards through silky skies her pain carved into silver stars illuminating the darkness with the tender teardrops that decorate her eyes, yet she is silent, overwhelmed, her inability to convey the whispers aching to be free, the tragic whispers that envelop her, her unravelling… It’s only now she wakes up, Startled, realising the dear price for this salvation, this time of tranquility, lost, her fingers trace the lashings of honey left behind, the memories inscribed on her skin in blossom pink twinkling.

But she refuses to succumb to this relentless routine; water whisks away her shattered reflection, scattered, every rose-tinted feather swirling away into the distance, gone. Resolved, she takes pleasure in watching the shimmering shadows twinkle and twirl across the midnight sky, certain that she would see them again Tomorrow.

Image: Maia O Nord