Luke and his poetry

Luke's love of writing is not a secret. He wants to be an author when he is older, and excels at anything with a literary slant.

As part of the gifted and talented programme at school they had a day of poetry, lead by the poet laureate of Birmingham. They had a bit of a competition between different groups to see who had produced the best poem (with performance as well), with the winners going on to a regional competition being held at a local theatre. Luke was in a group of 4 boys, and they put together a 4 verse poem about the war in Afghanistan (Luke later extended it to an 8 verse poem). The outcome of the competition was that his team came joint first with a team of 6 girls. They had to have another performance this week to see who won. The girls practiced lots, and polished their performance. The boys turned up at the required time and just "did it" first time with the extra 4 verses in it. The outcome was that the boys won, apparently on the merit of the poem (not the performance!). Luke was so chuffed, as he had pretty much written the whole thing, was the youngest participant by a whole school year, and had very nearly reduced the teacher to tears.

He now has to decide whether to take part in the performance in the larger competition, as he really doesn't like public speaking. But, whatever he decides he has had the boost of confidence this has given, and the means alot to him (and us!)

I am trying to get him to put it on his blog Land of Luke: Inside the mind of me. He has some other WIP's on there at the moment.