We have already reported on a day held in Rochester in July of this year, which brought together children from several schools in the region of Medway (see”Two Hundred school children celebrate diversity in Medway”). The purpose of the day was to celebrate diversity and to explore some of the richness of our different cultures, as well as the tensions that arise as a community absorbs difference and forms and re-forms around it. Various arts were deployed on the day, but the chief medium was poetry and the time was hugely productive in that regard.

The new collection consists of almost 40 poems produced either in preparation for the day or during it, 15 of them competition winners. (Competition judges were Rogan Wolf and Stephen Watts).

Most of the poems follow the themes suggested, with extraordinary energy and urgency. There are some very vivid accounts of the strains and paradoxes implicit in being young in a society of tumultuous change and inter-change. Also many of the poems about animals show immense compassion and awareness of the fragility of our environment.

If you have already registered with us, downloading the new collection requires you only to log on. If you haven’t registered yet, you’ll find this easy to do. Go to the appropriate entry on the menu bar and follow the directions. Then just visit the Poems for…young lives page.