Prizes for poetry competition winners

Prizes have been handed out to the winners of a poetry competition at Arbury Court Library.

Three poets – Elias Acevedo, 8, Maria Dixon, 14 and Karen Rodgers, 45 – each took home a book token and a framed copy of their work at a prize-giving ceremony at the library this morning. The prizes were given out during the library’s popular Story Club session.

The competition was organised by Friends of Arbury Library (FOAL) member William Brown, and was judged by Mr Brown together with children’s author Paul Shipton (also a FOAL member) and staff at the library. You can scroll down to read the full text of the winning poems.

Mr Brown said: “We had such a high standard of entries that judging the competition was an almost impossible task. We were delighted to see so many people, children and adults, taking part and showing their creative sides. Although we could only pick three winners in the end, everyone who entered the competition is a winner in our eyes.”

Cook Book

Elias Acevedo, age 8

I got a hook

and on the hook

there was a book

and in the book

was how to cook

I took a look

and now

I can cook!

Please help save my library

Maria Dixon, age 14 

Please help save my library

It means so much to me.

Without it, I'd never have known

Tweedledum or Tweedledee.

I would not know What Katy Did 

Or Where The Wild Things Are,

I'd have no clue where Hogwarts was

Or why Frodo journeyed far.

I'd have no fiction friends you see,

No Sherlock Holmes or Baloo the Bear,

Without my books, I would be lost,

Plus, the library's always been there.

I don't want to lose my library,

I love it so dearly.

So please help save my library,

it means so much to me!

The Sanctuary

Karen Rodgers, age 451/2

In the streets it's such a riot

Where in the world can you go to be quiet?

Radios blaring, great screens glaring,

people staring: "what are you wearing?"

People lonely, but nobody caring,

no-one to ask how the old lady's faring.

Where can you go to share a story,

to reflect on life in all of its glory?

Where can you go, where people know you,

where you can share a joke, a recipe too?

Where can you go where you know you'll find

both company and something to stretch your mind?

Is there anywhere left in this whole busy town

where you can go to slow it all down?

Well, there's one place left where it's quiet and sane,

Where the colours are real and they know you by name;

where you can sit for a while, lost in wonder

where you've time to admire, to think and to ponder.

Entranced by myths and lulled by verse,

without having to overstrain the purse.

One sane place left in this whole crazy town,

please don't close our library down.