More Success For Young Yarm School Poet

Eight-year-old Yarm Preparatory School pupil, Alexandra Prideaux, has continued her poetry success winning the U11 2021 Terry Kelly Poetry Prize.

The Terry Kelly Poetry Prize is an annual poetry prize for young writers in the North East which was set up in memory of the dedicated journalist and poetry enthusiast, Terry Kelly. People aged 25 and under are invited to enter an original poem, of no more than 40 lines long, into one of five categories: Primary, Secondary, Post-16, Outstanding Group Poem and the Galvanize Prize.

Alex entered her poem, Paper on the Pavement, into the Primary category and was awarded first prize. Alex read her poem on stage at the award ceremony, held at the Custom House Theatre in South Shields.

This isn’t the first time Alex has been recognised for her tremendous writing skills; in 2019 at the age of six, she was shortlisted in the same competition with her poem ‘I Love School‘, just narrowly missing out on first prize. More recently, she received an award for her participation in the prestigious Charles Causley Trust Young Person’s Poetry Competition with her poem ‘Tilly Tiger.’ Alex wrote Tilly Tiger when she has just turned five, but it received a ‘1st Highly Commended’ awared in the 7-11 age category.

Alex was also shortlisted for the Wicked Young Writers Award 2018 (category 5-7) and has been a prize winner in two Poetry Zone competitions.

Alex said: “I love writing poems and being creative and I really enjoy sharing my writing with other people. I am really proud of myself for winning and I can’t wait to enter more competitions like this one.”

Bill Sawyer, Headmaster at Yarm Prep School, said: “Alex is a very talented young girl who is competing with children several years older than herself.

We believe in nurturing young talent and we actively encourage our pupils to take part in competitions and awards which will stretch their learning, develop confidence and give them the recognition they deserve.”

Paper on the Pavement

I saw it
over there; swirling,
spiralling, soggy
from rain and snow melt.
Paper,
on the pavement,
creased, folded,
dirty and damp.

What message was carried?
Invitation or card?
“I love you” “I miss you”
A bunch of words;
abandoned,
forgotten,
dropped.
Never to be read.

Wrapping paper ripped
from treasured toy.
Broken, rubbish,
bin tipped over;
Tumbling now through
mud and leaves.

Family photo fallen,
left behind, from
pocket or purse?
Or simply none,
nothing, blank,
plain.