The 15-18 yr old group winner for the 2019 writing competition at UEA’s Festival Of Literature for Young People (FLY) is Maud Webster from City of Norwich School. The theme for this year’s competition was a poem of any length beginning with the word ‘Afterwards’.
As the winner of the Norfolk Prize, Maud wins the opportunity for her poem to be made into an animated film, courtesy of sponsors Somo Global.
AFTERWARDS
afterwards, we perch
baked by the sun, legs swing
laughing at the exploits of summer
this time, that time, and
the murmur of names bring
back the lazy, hazy faces
frame our existence in the minds of places
the soulless winter heralds
a crawling spring
long-awaited rays of gold
of which our memories told
to us, would be worth waiting for
beach riots and sandals slapping
the sandcastle king.
boardwalk encounters and
dune disasters, we missed this land.
land of being present and
land of sandwiches and swimming and
that ‘sweltering’ sun.
The runner up in this category is Jessica Holmes from Turing House School, Hampton.