‘Original and insightful’: Poet pays tribute to boys’ writing
More than 120 boys took part in the school’s Staveley Competition, which was judged by renowned poet Jonathan Edwards.
Named after inspirational Tonbridge teacher Tom Staveley, who taught the Second World War poet Sidney Keyes, the competition provides a platform for poetry writing at the school and has been running for more than half a century.
After commending the high quality of the entries, Jonathan Edwards chose overall winners for the three age groups. Archie Capon (WH5) won the Senior Prize, Jack Walder (PS2) was selected for the Intermediate Prize, and James Tam (MH1) won the Novi Prize.
In summing up, Jonathan wrote: “It was wonderful to see what these young writers have already achieved in their work, and to anticipate what they will go on to achieve.
“I’d thought it was impossible to write directly about the pandemic already. But some of the entries for this competition showed an ability to write about our current situation from original, insightful angles, going beyond the obvious, even at a time when this strange world is still very new to us all.
“Elsewhere, there was fascinating treatment of a wide range of subjects, from Oxfam shops to the shadows of pheasants, and from a lion’s roar to the music of Bach. I applaud the achievements of all these young writers, and am hugely grateful for the opportunity to read this work.”
The poet also had plenty of praise for the winners. For Archie Capon’s ‘Oxfam’, he wrote: “This is a wonderful poem, that would make a worthy winner of a poetry competition for any age group. In an everyday Oxfam shop, the poet finds a treasure-chest of startling phrases … causing us to look at a familiar subject in a way that is brand new.”
He found that Jack Walder’s ‘The Roar’ was “a really effective animal monologue, with the animal’s voice and surroundings being marvellously conjured”; and described ‘Butterfly’ by James Tam as a “skilful and vivid” piece of writing, “which wonderfully understands the power of poems to be about much more than their immediate subjects”.
Jonathan’s 2014 debut collection My Family and Other Superheroes was recently chosen by booksellers as one of their top 25 favourite poetry books of the last 25 years, following a survey by National Poetry Day. His second collection, Gen, won Wales Book of the Year People’s Choice 2019, and he is the new editor of Poetry Wales.
Tonbridge has a strong poetic tradition, fostered by an active creative writing society, annual residential writing weeks and ‘in house’ workshops given by published poets.
Pictured above: Jonathan Edwards with some of the Tonbridge poets. Jonathan is also pictured below.
Staveley Poetry Prize 2020: Results.
Senior:
1st: Archie Capon (WH5), ‘Oxfam’
2nd: Alban Fenn (WW5), ‘Pheasants’
3rd: Jon Webber (FH4), ‘Meadow off the M25’
Highly Commended:
Paddy Davies-Jones (Sc4), ‘Red River’
Dan Carr-Hill (Sc5), ‘Italian Chef’
Jamie Whitney (Sc5), ‘Do You Remember?’
Intermediate:
1st: Jack Walder (PS2), ‘The Roar’
2nd: Jais Picariello (WW2), ‘Switchblade’
3rd: Jamie Lambert (Sc3), ‘A Question’
Highly Commended:
Ollie Sykes (HS2), ‘The Lesson’
Alikhan Murat (FH3), ‘Everything works at home’
Marcus Siu (Sc3), ‘The End’
Novi:
1st: James Tam (MH1), ‘Butterfly’
2nd: Johnnie Averdieck (WW1), ‘Bach Violin Sonata No. 1, Hillary Hahn’
3rd: Jean Van Der Spuy (FH1), ‘Assurance’
Highly Commended:
Dominic Fulton (WH1), ‘Beginnings’
Isaac King (CH1), ‘Cumulonimbus’
Sam Edwards (PS1), ‘Starry Night’
