Charlie, one of our talented Year 10 students at Chatham Grammar, has won the Simon Powell National Poetry Prize 2020. Charlie entered this competition after attending ‘Poetry Live’ on an English school trip last year.

The prize includes a workshop with the famous poet Daljit Nagra, a set of books, and a chance for Charlie to read the poem at the ‘Poetry Live’ event next year!

Missing You x

By Charlie K

I wander to your graveside and place flowers down with care,

No-one feels my heartache as I turn and leave you there.

Still feels like only yesterday I lost you, the wound is deep,

I miss you every minute of everyday, I miss you more when I'm asleep.

I hope the worldly wind blows and whispers softly in your ear,

And tells you how much we love and miss you and wish that you were here.

Something will always remind me, I just never know quite when,

It might be a memory or a cliched quote, then it all comes back again.

You left this world so quickly, we still all wonder why,

For the saddest part of all is you could never say goodbye.

You taught me most of everything that I would ever need,

But you didn't teach me how to live without you, I don't know how to proceed.

I hope that you are with me, through each and every day,

For you are forever locked up in my heart, you cannot get away.

Daljit Nagra had this to say about Charlie’s poem:

"A technically accomplished elegy prompted by a visit to a

‘graveside’ and permanently remembering a beloved through ‘memory or cliched quote’. The rhymes and the controlled rhythm lock the voice in a time that can’t escape grief."

We are incredibly proud of Charlie and we can’t wait to see where her talents take her.