In a new twist on ‘writing’ poetry, the library ran a Book Spine Poetry Competition early in September. Hundreds of book spines with interesting titles had been copied, laminated and cut to size then spread out across a big table in the middle of the library. The students were encouraged to select titles and use them to create a poem – then leaving the poem on a white board with their names written underneath.

Earlier, Anita Vandenberghe, the College librarian, had invited Amanda Eason, an Auckland based poet, teacher and creative writer to give poetry workshops to classes in the library. It was a busy day for Amanda with all periods booked and it was a day full of surprises for teachers and students as Amanda had the skill to get the students writing the most amazing poetry.

The students who participated in the Book Spine Poetry competition showed the power of storytelling. It was curious to see how the combination of book titles could create fantastic stories of adventure, love, loss or longing….

The boys, especially, seemed to enjoy the process of collecting, combining and organising the titles; as if they suddenly dared to do what usually is too daunting to consider - making poetry. They liked the fact that there was no rhyme involved and no grammar or spelling. Just picking up appealing titles and ‘painting a picture’.

The librarians photographed the poems with the names of the student and printed them for judging by Amanda. The 10 best poets have been invited to the library for a special Creative Writing Poetry workshop with Amanda. We thank Amanda for the time she has taken to work with our students.

Other winners who are invited for the Creative Writing Poetry workshop are:

Timothy So, Joanna Tao, Hannah Coates, Josh Looker, Matthew Clow, Victoria Zhu, Norman Dines, Flynn Robson, Max Denby, William Zhang, Patrick Ye, Jordana Grant, Jessica Arden, Zoe French.

Winning 5 Spine Poem by Emma King and Taylor Hill, Year 7

For love and money
Follow your heart
A smile in the mind
Think about it
That’s the trick

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