We want to take a moment to celebrate Lila in MYP3 and her poem ‘A Fork in the Road’, which she entered as part of the Book Week Poetry Slam competition.

Just before the Spring Break, we held Book Week at school that celebrated our love for reading and words. There were many fantastic initiatives that ran throughout the week: character dress up days, Drop Everything And Read, cross-class reading, mother tongue group reading, and for the MYP classes, there was also the Poetry Slam Competition!

The Poetry Slam was an open competition for all MYP students. It was a blind judging competition – that is to say contestants submitted their poems anonymously and had both their names and year group removed. The poems were then posted in the staff room with the various criteria (word choice, stylistic devices, consistent theme, form, rhyme & rhythm) to consider. Staff members then anonymously placed their votes. It was a read-only judging process, so that anonymity could be kept, and to encourage some students who, in the past, have kept away from the competition due to the fear of public speaking.

Out of the entries, ‘A Fork in the Road’ was chosen as the winner. The poem impressed staff for its content and word choice, the rhythm and the depth of imagery and metaphorical meaning.

Lila performed her poem at the Book Week assembly where it received a huge round of applause and she was awarded her prize of a book gift. We are immensely proud of Lila. She has demonstrated great depth in knowledge, creativity and was a risk taker to put herself and her words out there for all to read and judge.

Congratulations to Lila and well done to all the entries who also took a very courageous step
in submitting their work.

A big thank you also goes to Ms. Bailey for organising the Poetry Slam and Ms. Taryn for organising and coordinating the Book Week.

A Fork in the Road

Lila Mendelsohn

A fork in the road tells the story once told
Of our ancestors fighting fire in chains
Where their voices were thoughts in vain
Where their cries were useless and the answers unlawfully claimed

Now our choices can’t be seen
And we fight battles like decisions in our brains
What we’re told is untrue
And that fork in the road we cannot undo

Our fights rendered useless but we stand through it all
Don’t bother trying to fix what we know is going to fall
But they say our wishes would one day appear
But that fork in the road is still unclear

Which choice do we make, the past or the future
Do we learn from mistakes or fix what is shattered
The path we must follow is one with hate luring bait
You can see the stars fall or see them dying out
You can see bloodshed with no mercy or light burning doubt

The city built on lies
Creates children playing with balls made of eyes

They watch every move
staying who you are is to be made a fool
But the fork in the road knows you’re going to try and not give up until you die
A fight to choose what must be chosen
Do not abandon a fork in the road for all who do will be forgotten