National Poetry Day

Not Like This Salute to your Lady Liberty The Rainforest

Brooks bubbling with the laughter of river nymphs. As breath-taking as a patchwork sunset, manufactured by Mother Nature herself. Then he came... What fool would stumble on this glorious feast of naked beauty? He would. What fool would trespass on this delicate scene? He would. What fool would stand as though this were a mere interest to him; a particularly wild scene in a mundane play? He would. Stood still; as though bound by confusion. Mouth parted in jealous admiration. Eyes darting to commit this sight to memory. Diana in all her bare glory, surrounded by faithful servants, and me. Me, a defenceless cub, protected by the shameless lionesses; undaunted By the prospect of being ‘caught’. Me, shackled By my purity and innocence. Me, a naïve child, who seeks a companion. But not like this. Not through intrusion and invasion of privacy. Not through a longing and lust for prying. Not through greed and temptation. Not like this. The year is 1830 and you are repenting for a sin you have yet to commit. Grind the gunpowder, tip the chairs – Your spirit is rifle-fire, waiting to be lit. Embrace your Lady Liberty, teeth bared in a vicious snarl, billowing tunic and hair a-flutter. Her breath is yours, your eyes are hers – one shot, two, Swing the musket, a bullet through the heart – stutter

but never stop. The year is 1832 and the routine of destruction is something awful familiar. The streets writhe and whorl and your daemons creep from the sewers to rattle your barricade wall.

For the women, for the children, for the spirit of Lady Liberty – for the masses, the spent and used. Bare your soul from your rickety towers. A bullet through the heart – a life bruised.

Ally Fowler, Year 13

Genevieve Pearce, Year 7

On Thursday 28th September, NHEHS celebrated National Poetry Day and the theme this year was “Freedom”. The school was delighted to welcome the renowned poet Patience Agbabi for the day. Famous for her spoken verse, Agbabi has published several poetry anthologies, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and is also a judge in the prestigious Poetry by Heart competition. Agbabi ran workshops with groups of Year 10 students, focusing on the form and structure of poems and encouraging them to explore their own writing styles. Girls in Year 11, 12 and 13 were also treated to a poetry reading by Agbabi, which included poems from her “Telling Tales” collection. At lunchtime, the atrium was the stage for the first ever NHEHS “Poetry Slam” competition. Overall, this was an exciting and inspiring day for all involved and we are so grateful to Patience Agbabi for sharing her talented work. I know a place where the night sky wears a diamond necklace, twinkling in the inky blackness. Come morning, the emerald canopy of the rainforest caresses the slices of gold that fall upon it, and sings with the sounds of animal life. The sticky air is filled with the raucous cries of the wildlife, and of the liquid silver cutting its path through the foliage. It gushes with the urgency of an army to a war, and indeed that is true. Nature is at war, one in which it is the battleground, and man the enemy. Trees quickly fall, killed by unnatural disease, an urban greed. Mankind lingers like a parasite, draining the rainforest of its values as the clouds mourn the fallen with their molten iron tears. Only a deafening silence greets ears that dare to visit and just sometimes, the desperate, rattling breaths of a planet deprived of its lungs.

Milly Buckroyd, Year 10

Daydream

She spends her afternoon in a land far away - beyond the lush green trees and blue skies outside the window, beyond the fresh-bricked suburban buildings and tarmac suburban roads. In an instant she is lifted into a place where no algebra equations lurk, nor human tendencies to fail or hurt. Her own mind seems to abandon her, a kind of spirit taking its place, singing her a soft and soothing lullaby. The soundless melody drowns out her classmates’ accents, and her muscles release all tension. Breathing nearly ceasing, she watches the sun line the clouds with silver and send them across the vast blue.The breeze and the beauty of the world billows seemlessly through her hair. She looks back at everything from her place in the sky, drinking in the sight of a world where nothing matters.

Izzy Verity, Year 10