Stella T’s Poetry Composition Takes the House Win

Inspired by the theme of ‘Dreams and Reminiscences’, pupils penned works for the first ever House Poetry Composition Prize. The shortlisted entries were judged by Oxford Academic and Poet, Olivia Hurton, author of The Separation Ceremony and Editor-in-Chief of Bluestocking Oxford. The prize-winners of the Olivia Hurton Prize for House Poetry Composition will have their work published in the forthcoming Cat Among the Pigeons Magazine. Congratulations to the overall winner, Stella T, for her soulful poem ‘The Dream Bird’ described by the judge as ‘utterly transporting, a paean to the elusiveness of the imagination.’

‘The Dream Bird’

By Stella T

Once I had a dream that soared like a flying bird,

It flew so high it couldn’t be seen or heard.

Soon I forgot about it, as I so often do,

But it started to whisper and in my head it flew.

It started very softly, before the noise began to grow,

And it created a melody of fantasies that started to flow.

The bird sang songs of joy and hope in the day,

Yet would cause me anxiety and trouble along the way.

The nightbird was the scariest of its multiple faces,

Creating pain that was the worst I had ever felt,

But didn’t leave physical traces.

It would eat me inside out at night,

Then heal me in the day.

It was called the dream bird, 

A moonlight’s glare and a sunlight ray.