The 2015 theme was PEACE NOT WAR: KEEPING HOPE ALIVE 1914 - 18.       Shortlisted poems and schools were as follows:

Selected Winning Poems

​Anonymous (Age 9)
In my mind there is a memory, a place I don’t dare go
Weetwood Primary
 
In my mind there is a memory, a place I don’t dare go
A dove circles it
Not letting me think of it
In a way I am grateful but my heart throbs with despair
I can remember the words he said before he departed
I pleaded for him to stay
He said mankind had done so much,
He needed to do something back
I stopped. I don’t know why
I never forgave myself for letting him go
But he did and he never returned
For twenty years I told myself he would come
I checked the mail every day for lost letters
But then I stopped
Because I knew,
I knew I would just be disappointed, and the dove
She would die more each time and let the memory seep through
But she still protects me, from the harmful memories I have.
Each year I send out a dove
With pure white feathers, in the hope it will reach him
It never does
Hope and peace, the things I live for without him.

Kiera Ahmed (Age 13)
Hope
Woodkirk Academy
 
As I stand here in this cold, sodden trench
Waiting for the enemy, wanting to quench my thirst
 I look out into the desolate distance, all I can see is slushy mud and dirty feet
The bell sounds again in the distance, the enemy is coming
Quick, hide, fire your guns and fight
My comrade in the trench is hit in his chest, gunfire aiming at me
Do I kill my enemy, or save the life next to me?
Kill or die is all I see
I smell death and gas in my temporary home
There is no door, no soul, no-one is home
It’s just me on my own
Fighting for my life, fighting for my country, fighting not to die
The only thing that keeps me going is hope
Hope to see my family, and hope for the future
 
Suddenly my chest feels numb, and the red oozing liquid keeps my cold hands warm
I feel weak, I’m tired and I just want to sleep
I open my eyes and my old man is reaching out to me
His embrace is warm and comforting, like I always dreamed it would be
I’m home now dad, safe and sound with your loving arms around me
 
Mike Harwood (Adult)
Lest We Forget  

The earth is sacred;
Stone-winded from the moor,
Sheep and the yellow buttercup
In Ribblesdale.
Bluebell and the stitchwort quilt.
Hedge-hemmed and earthly
With honeysuckle thread.
 
Nothing is yellow
As the buttercup in May.
 
But then......What is to come?
 
Green grass meadow
Shadowed
By the flapping crow,
Slow black upon the wing; harbinger
Of the  vast insidious army,
Plagued from a distant war;
Last death call of the flowering year.
 
Bring out your flowers;
Bring out your flowers.
Dead
Eyes of the daisy,
Ripped from the quiet Dale,
Scavenged
By the Unholy War.

PRIMARY:  Jessica Jones (ST JOSEPH'S CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL) 'Long ago there was fear'; Owen O'Malley (ST JOSEPH'S CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL) 'Peace is Forever'; Anna Kippen (WEETWOOD PRIMARY SCHOOL) 'In my mind there is a memory, a place I don't dare go'; Feargus Hagerty (ST PAUL'S CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL) 'The Fight for Peace'; Luke Riley (ST PAUL's CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL) 'For The Last Time'; Ketsia Makondele (WOODLANDS PRIMARY ACADEMY) 'The War One'; Emily Lancaster (WESTERTON PRIMARY SCHOOL) 'Evermore I Wait'; Cian Daley, Jack Ainley, Lawrence Sheard (WESTERTON PRIMARY SCHOOL) 'Peace is not War'; Charlie Taylor and Austin Widdows (WESTERTON PRIMARY SCHOOL) 'I hope'.

SECONDARY:  Eleanor Johnson 'What will we become?'; Isobelle Labbert (GARFORTH ACADEMY) 'Forgotten Hero'; Alana Mountain (GARFORTH ACADEMY) 'Peace'; Sam Mainprize (GARFORTH ACADEMY) 'The Crow' and 'Death's Observations'; Poppy Wald-Harding (GARFORTH ACADEMY) 'Syrian War'; Amber Pashley 'Peace Not War'; Kiera Ahmed 'Hope'; Lydia Coyle (WOODKIRK ACADEMY) 'End This War'; Izzy Blakley (BOSTON SPA COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL) 'The Fallen'; Finlay Dunlop (BOSTON SPA COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL) 'Blind Peace'.

ADULT:   Rachel Flint 'The Shade Battalion'; Mike Harwood 'Lest We Forget'; Linda Loganathan 'Egypt 2015'.

SCHOOL PRIZE:  BROOMFIELD SOUTH SILC; WESTERTON PRIMARY ACADEMY; BOSTON SPA COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL; GARFORTH ACADEMY.
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The photograph below is of the entrance to the Great Hall of the University of Leeds