Introduction from the Editor

Hi everyone, and welcome to the second edition of Poets’ Corner, NLCS’ only publication dedicated to showing off the poetic talent we have in school! The type of poem I chose for this edition is odes. Odes are poems dedicated to someone or something specific and are renowned for often discussing complex emotions and themes. Students from across the school have contributed a wide range of beautiful poems that truly demonstrate the ode’s versatility, and I hope that this publication gives you a taste of the poetry world, and all the different directions in which poetry can take you.

Thank you for reading this edition of Poets’ Corner – I hope you enjoy it!

-Emma Editor-in-chief

Contents:

• Caprice – 4

• Lake Avernus – 5

• Ode to Love – 6

• Ode to the Actress – 7

• Ode to the Pandemic: We Wait for the End – 8

• Ode to Trees – 9

• Ode to the Cosmopolitan – 10

• Ode to the Winter Woods – 11

• Ode to Nature – 12

• Ode to the Swan – 13

• Chemistry Whizz - 15

Many thanks to Solène for her wonderful cover art

Caprice I

A flutter from an insect’s wings

And her eyes blink open to whispers of nothings. Tentative, she whistles a melody of reveille Before the droplets count out her sparse accompaniment. The dull thrill died on her tongue and bent Her wiry sculpture.

Ii

Rhythms –

Reverberations of a strained pulse on pulled hide. Mercilessly the club strikes down As pen strikes page, bruised and calloused.

Dust-clouds left in friction’s wake Settle, writing sound’s story as

The threads and ribbons catch and break, Crying in a lyrical aching: It etches out the melody, Drawing out its soul.

Iii

The dance erases the erring of voice and string As heels pound out the textured trails Of man’s melodies. A whirl of wrists And drumming hearts tell the tales Of his longing in song.

Lake Avernus

Deathly and silent and still is the lake

When creatures asleep in the shadows awake, And when in the night sky the full moon shines bright, Casting its waters in silvery light, Nowhere could feel as foreboding as here. Nowhere so empty could incite so much fear, For it in its solitude and disconsolate state, Reminds us of our destiny, our eventual fate... Where far below here, in the Earth, it is said, Feared above all is the Realm of the Dead, And mothers and children, great heroes and men, Once they have set foot there, may not leave again. But if ever you come here, if ever you try, And you feel Lord Hades is waiting nearby, Assure yourself, he resides far, far away, Far below Lake Avernus and the warm light of day.

- H-L L

Love is when you can’t describe it. It’s every black word on infinite blank pages. It’s everything and nothing, Old and new.

It’s memories buried in the past And a future filled with hope.

It’s butterflies every single time they’re there.

It’s their eyes that find you from across the room, Across the road, Across the world.

It’s everything you’ve ever wanted Wrapped up in one heart.

It’s right there, So close.

It’s one thought, So simple. So far.

The lights dim, the acting starts

As the beat of my heart

Ricochets through my skull

Like a broken echo

And yet my face Is frozen

As the tears are held back Yet every fear is intact.

Feeling hate is hard, Hating to feel is harder

I barter

With my mind

And it only barks back in A tone meant to say Atonement is the way.

Atone for my feelings?

But my feelings aren’t sin

They fester within, A drug flushing my skin

The mirror of radiant thrill.

As my tears fall From sadness

Because theirs fall From joy, The lights lift

And the gift

Of emotion glitters brighter, And my heart is pulled tighter

Because I know That theirs overflow

Ode to the Actress

Ode to the Pandemic: We Wait for the End

And so we begin. Sitting alone, together

We wait for the end

Of the wave crashing over us.

One that does not break

One that does not subside.

It only flows, collecting debris

In the form of unknowing people.

We wait for the end

Of these alien times.

We see each other

When we are further than we’ve ever been.

We listen

When we cannot hear at all.

We wait for the end

When we do not want to wait any longer.

We wait for the end

And we shall keep on waiting.

But the end will come

And with it

The joy And happiness

We shall finally be able to see

In the faces of our neighbours

Our friends

And our family.

Ode To Trees

Acres of the tall and proud gazed down at the lonely hearts. They were no stranger to the constant ebb, and flow, Observing moment on moment as the ones joined into twos: the frivolity of it all.

Many years they have seen, and many more they will see still, Outlasting the couples who pledged their undying adoration, Only their oath of the loyalty bounded in rings remained true. To be faithful, for better or for worst, in sickness and in health.

Faithful to the rising sun, and falling moon, Faithfull to the stars, who carried their duty up above as they did down below, twisting roots re-joining the lovers from so long ago.

Alas, they too fell short, falling victim to the memory they pledged to preserve, time’s scythe did grant any exceptions, not even to the keepers of history.

Bur their duty they continued, as frivolous as the infatuation they observed, passing down their oath to newly embedded roots, in hopes that they might learn.

- AYW