Young poets embrace lockdown

Poems about the halt to normal life, silence on the streets and spending time with a new kitten were just some themes shared by young South Canterbury people in a writing competition describing lockdown.

The Timaru District Libraries Lockdown Poetry Competition received 61 entries, a social media post by the library says.

The competition invited children and teenagers to to express how they felt and what they experienced during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Timaru Girls’ High School student Francesca Gould, 18, won the 16 years to 18 years category of the competition with her piece titled, Peace in Chaos. She received a $30 Whitcoulls voucher.

Francesca said she ‘‘quite enjoyed’’ lockdown, spending quality time with her loved ones and discovered she worked better alone than being in a classroom. Competition results are:

5-8 years

First, Maslin Brook; second, Barker Hanifin.

9-12 years

First, Amy Dillon; second. Emily Rentoul.

13-15 years

First, Madison Sugrue; second, Oliver Agnew.

16-18 years

First, Francesca Gould; second, Lucy Barge.

Peace in Chaos

I embrace the sun, blanketing me in a cloak of warmth and light

I feel clarity as I breathe the stillness.

I take moments to stretch, To recentre,

To indulge in this space to discover and understand myself.

Free from accustomed enervation and routine.

A single moment in a time that will never happen again.

I have lived every part of my home, every direction of my life becoming one.

I have walked and biked my neighbourhood, and soaked in the crisp, fresh air.

The streets have stared at me blankly,

their desolation becoming my normal as each day bleeds into the next.

But I have noticed their details, Perceiving the mundane in a new light.

I have wallowed in quality time with loved ones,

I have accepted each day and taken with each, what it gives, drinking in my freedom. And I have allowed myself to admire life’s simplicities.

Watching nature move with the clock.

Each free moment an opportunity.

And while time wades through an inky depth of uncertainty,

I feel strangely secure. Stuck in this moment of between.

Coming together,

Alone but not lonely.

And when this is all over, We will only be stronger. Kinder.

More appreciative of our little freedoms.

More appreciative of one another.

Grateful.

JOHN BISSET/STUFF Francesca Gould, winner of the Lockdown Poetry Competition in the 16 to 18 years category.