Beth Lynch in Year 9 won the Dunedin Secondary Schools' Poetry Competition in August.

The competition was judged by well known poet, David Eggleton.
Beth's poem was on World War 1 and she was invited to read her poem at the Dunedin Poetry Day event at the Dunningham Suite in the library on Friday 28 August, as part of the evening's poetry celebrations. David Eggleton was one of the guest poets reading that night, alongside Burns Fellow, Louise Wallace and Wellington poet and musician Hinemoana Baker. 

Beth's poem has been published as a poster by the library, and distributed to schools and libraries. Her poem is also be published on the writenow.org.nz website.  Beth continues a strong writing tradition for Logan Park, as Josephine Devereux as a Year 13 student won last year's Dunedin competition. Beth's winning poem appears below:

WW1

Petty concerns

Such as pipes and slippers

Matter not here

Instead, we battle a never-ending war

Fighting ourselves

And the enemy

If we were an orchestra

We would be the drum

Marching proud

Only to fail

Nothing changes here

I remember not

My family is but a dream

There are only the guns

The blood

And constant death

I remember not

The towers of my homeland

The sweet smell of boiled sugars

The laughter of children

There are only the guns

The blood

And a growing list of the missing soldiers

If this war…

If this living nightmare were to ever end

Then I would like to think there would never be another

As I said

Petty things

Like peace and hope

They matter not here.