Winner of SGGS National Poetry Competition
Lily Yang’s poem Epistemological Vitality Wins SGGS National Poetry Day Competition
“Truth evades mortal reaches…truth seems unattainable…out of grasp” (Lily Yang)
2019’s apposite theme for National Poetry Day was Truth. SGGS students were invited to submit poetic compositions inspired by this idea. Poems flooded in with words describing pupils’ ‘truth’ about: the environment, friendship, work, families, love and science. Judged by Sixth form Students Jess Bassil and Evelyn Byrne ( and assisted by Ms Litterick) the entries were deemed to be outstanding proving how the poetic word is a vibrant conduit for young people’s intense feelings about the world around and within them.
All entrants received house points and treats with the year group winners being awarded small gifts. Overall winner, Year 11’s Lily Yang, topped the bill with her shattering rumination on apples, ambrosia, angels and… truth.
Lily said, "I am very excited to to have won the school poetry competition, and to apply for Warwickshire's young poet laureate; as a result I have gained more confidence in my work."
Below is a note regarding 'Epistemological Vitality'
Poet's note: Although this poem (like truth) has a plethora of subjective interpretations, as the writer, I tried to incorporate religious semantics, science, storytelling, and a slight social commentary. Overall, I think the message is that the truth can be twisted and/or truth has many facets.
Epistemological vitality
by Lily Yang
An immutable, immortal angel
A constant, an answer
It is not the bird that sings the sweetest, loudest, nor the meekest,
Nor the warrior that fought the bravest, for the longest, nor the greatest
It’s not the tree that grows the tallest, broadest, nor the strongest.
It’s the tree that not one soul’s senses detected fell
At the heart of a forest.
Our mortal perceptions both hinder and kindle
the search; In the broadest sense, it cannot exist:
Somewhere, there will be an exception;
A rebel against rules.,;
Truth evades mortal reaches
The more we lust for a taste of pure ambrosia
from the Holy Grail, the more it distorts,
defying pre-defined principles, metamorphosing
into a woman.
Truth seems unattainable;
An objective, absolute certainty.
(But how can I say that with conviction?)
Truth, like freedom, justice, will, hope, time- are ideals
crafted by inexplicable circumstance.
Just out of our grasp, we, the slaves,
topple again to the ground
Like an apple:
A bird pecks at it, devouring sumptuous flesh
Then takes flight, rising in the air;
It is shot through the breast by a cruel invention
(Ironic that feathers fly to pierce their kin)
And the hot, vermillion blood that seeps
brilliant
Matches the lustre of that plentiful orb
that grew from the tree from a seed
deposited by a bird, buried in the soil
a century ago
it sprouted and grew
into something unique and new
Fruit and flower quietly adorned the tree that not a soul heard,
saw, nor experienced
Falling, its great roots outstretched, claw-like, petrified…
It is an endless cycle
Of relentless torture.
Truth is pain
But it also the light
we strive so hard to touch, to bathe in, the glory
that inevitably blinds us.
Instead of purifying, it corrupts innocent minds.
Society is not the truth.
… And though mother nature slowly covers the evidence- with
moss, fern, vine, shrub, bud, soil, seed, hue-
it rolls away
as a bird alights
And life returns
To the glade bathed
in twi-light.
The SGGS National Poetry Day Winners
Year 7 |
Alice Williams |
Orion |
8 |
Brooke Beech |
Cygnus |
9 |
Aparajita Gupta |
Ursa |
10 |
Camille Tissut |
Orion |
11 |
Lily Yang – Overall Winner |
Cygnus |
Sixth Form |
Evelyn Byrne |
Phoenix |