Students scoop top prizes in Wirral poetry competition

A student from Birkenhead Sixth Form College has beaten competition from hundreds of Wirral poets to win first prize in the Chris Salmon Poetry Extravaganza 2017.

First year, Brandon Chesworth, won in the 16-18 category of the annual contest, which is run by a foundation set up by the family of Chris Salmon: a poetry-loving teenager who passed away in 2009 from a streptococcal virus and pneumonia aged just 15. Second year, Melissa Andrews also secured a place in the top three, with both students winning cash prizes.

"I started out trying to write songs, but I’m not very good at singing and can’t play any instruments, so I found that writing poetry was just like writing songs but you had to read them, not sing them.”

Brandon Chesworth, first year

The Poetry Extravaganza started out in 2010 and each year has grown in size, with nearly a thousand people submitting entries this time around. The theme of this year’s competition was ‘Space’ and the winner of the 16-18 age group also becomes Wirral’s Young Poet Laureate for the following 12 months.

Brandon, 17, wrote a poem which was influenced by his own personal experiences and an interesting relaxation technique.

 

Brandon said: “I used to sit and look at the stars quite a lot as a way to relax, so I thought I could use the feelings from that – the isolation of it but also that sometimes it’s what you need to calm down. There’s also a slight romantic bit to it, but that’s pretty embarrassing!”

“I didn’t expect to win at all. The poem has a very personal edge to it so I actually really like it; I think it’s probably my favourite one that I’ve written, although it’s great to have had someone else read it and think ‘that’s pretty good’.”

Brandon decided to enter the competition having seen posters in the HUB as poetry is something that has played a part in his life for some time.

He said: “I’ve been writing poetry for about as long as I’ve been writing in general. I find writing therapeutic; it helps a lot. Originally, I started out trying to write songs, but I’m not very good at singing and can’t play any instruments, so I found that writing poetry was just like writing songs but you had to read them, not sing them.”

The Chris Salmon Poetry Extravaganza is run in conjunction with Wirral Library Services, and the expert judging panel said of Brandon’s submissions: “Amongst the several hundred high quality entries received for the competition this year, Brandon's poem stood out in his age group.   All the

judges were impressed by the way in which Brandon managed to link the vastness, the darkness and the loneliness of space to his own personal feelings and emotions.”

Melissa decided to write from a different perspective, and her poem ‘Dawning Realisation' deals with the vast but poignant topic of human nature.

She said: “The poem was written from the point of view of an astronaut who resents being so isolated, but also doesn’t want to return to Earth because of the destructive behaviour of the human race.”

 

Like Brandon, poetry is also not something new to Melissa, and she said: “I’ve been writing poetry since I was about eight or nine, although my poems tended to be about ice cream or climbing trees back then, and I cared less about them making sense and more about rhyming the endings of each line!

Both Brandon and Melissa will be attending a special awards ceremony at Wallasey Town Hall on 24^th March to receive their prizes.