A poem by the Grange Laureate, Izzy Harris

Izzy Harris in the Upper Sixth has recently been appointed the school's first Laureate, a role her excellent poetry truely deserves. She took a memorable assembly on Tuesday, talking about her work, reading examples of it and encouraging others to explore creative writing. Here is an extract from it:

I’m Izzy, the Grange School Laureate. My job isn’t to sit round acting poncy in a waistcoat, though admittedly I do rather enjoy doing that occasionally. Rather, my position is to promote writing in the school, both prose and poetry, we don’t discriminate, and with any luck get a bunch of you involved too. When I started writing I never thought I’d end up reading my poetry to the whole school.
There are many reasons to write, there’s the creativity aspect of course. Expressing yourself in new and experimental ways can be really entertaining, exciting, and helps to broaden your mind, as well as your understanding about yourself and your opinions of the world around you. It’s also a great way of challenging and enthusing yourself outside of the classroom, and I would recommend it to everyone to try, even if it’s just once. You’re first try isn’t going to be a masterpiece, but developing and practising to find a style you enjoy is part of the fun. And I do realise how this all sounds utterly naff, but it is true!

I first started writing about a year ago, and believe me there have been some massive failures, but hopefully I’ve improved a little since then.
And here are is one of her poems:

Church

Blossoms
Pink as the coil of a baby’s ear,
Spiral down to sleep
Amongst the graves.

Shadows cast like spells
By the velvet light of early eve
Make magic form of the bleached stone.
I shift but cannot leave.

Lost in the calm
Of silky skies
And voices that seep from between
Ashen panes of glass.

I am transfixed.
They swell and rise
And reach
For open, godly skies.

In this beauty that holds so close
It is God I see,
And now I am safe for this is bliss.
The truest faith is found in this.