Class E Poem
(Staff)
Poetry Man – by Fred Sedgwick
To the memory of Charles Causley, 1917-2003
Who comes here from Scapa Flow
And the murdering sea
Stung into elegy, ballad, lyric,
Chord and harmony?
It is the poetry man.
Who names children summoned home
By the sound of curfew bells –
Zoe and Betty and Joey flying
Down the Cornish hills? –
It is the poetry man.
Who stands in assembly, drawing
Songs from the junior choir
With his immaculate silent hands
And their insistent fire?
It is the poetry man.
Whose voice speaks in the classroom
As I repeat his lines,
His poems electricity
Down the children's spines?
It is the poetry man.
Who turned to the wall and left his town
Empty of verse,
Poems scattered in his books
Like gold from a purse?
It was the poetry man.
Footnote: the poet Charles Causley went to Scapa Flow in Scotland to join the Royal Navy in 1939. He said later that he became a poet the day he saw the sea from the deck of the destroyer. He also said that he was more frightened of the sea than he was of the enemy.
Print out and copy the poem. (click here to download)
Poems must be written with a pen on A4 unlined paper.
Entrants must write their name and school postcode on the back of each entry.
(Please do not include the school name)
Click to find out what to do with completed entries
