'Bird Song' Poetry Competition Winners Announced

The winners of the The TORCH SciPo 2021 Schools Poetry Competition have been announced. The competition was judged by David Morley.

The winners will be reading their entries at the SciPo Patterning Thought Event on the 12th March. You can book your tickets for the event here. 

Results:

Winner: Aviva Rynne Browne, 16

Runner-up: Esme Campbell-White, 8

Judges Remarks:

Hello! As judge, it was a complete pleasure to read the poems submitted for The TORCH SciPo 2021 Schools Poetry Competition under the theme of ‘birdsong’. I am a poet, but I was trained as an ecologist. I am also keen birdwatcher and have spent many hours sitting quietly in bird hides and forests listening for birdsong and even trying to make poems from their natural music.

It was great to read and listen to the poems in this competition. Their imagery was clear-eyed, their rhythms keenly heard. The observations of rare and common birds made for glorious writing. It was especially interesting to read how lockdown had made a difference to how birds are appreciated, and how the absence of human and road traffic amplified the perception and importance of birdsong to younger writers.

All the poems were wonderful but the winners stood out because they possessed energy, surprise, and invention. They were alive to the possibilities of the poetry of the natural world. To all of you who entered the competition, and to the winners, I offer both congratulations and thanks.

Professor David Morley FRSL

Special Mention (in no particular order):

The Birds in my Garden.  Claudia Potter, 16

A City Birdsong. Maxine Chu, 12

In lockdown I can hear the birdsong.  Jessica Mason, 17

Runner-up: Esme Campbell-White, 8

Riddle

I am …the colour of dead of night,

My song is like a cloud and it floats on the breeze,

My eye is a telescope.

I am the flute of the heavens.

I sing to attract mates,

I sing to protect my territory,

And I sing a summer’s evening.

What am I?

(Blackbird)

Winner: Aviva Rynne Browne, 16

Mechanical Singing

And if you walk the pathways then,

In spring or summer rains,

Know that blind above your eye

Does go the firing of the brain,

They shine, shine, the bird’s own pathways,

Learning vocal and production,

Singing clear of every note,

The duets which can serve instruction

To its rivals or they cry

For love in joyful tone

And sing and sing for all their worth

Using the medium of foam

From waves in air, the tremulous vibration

That rumbles out from deep in the trachea

And - listen still - abounds with syncopation

In those first three notes and

Note please the inflation of the lungs,

The pressing tension that surrounds,

And here (the best that comes is yet to come):

It unleads the tongue, and sings.

The winners will be reading their entries at the SciPo Patterning Thought Event on the 12th March. You can book your tickets for the event here.