'One Day' Competition

This year the theme for the 2022 Holocaust Memorial Day was One Day. One Day could mean a specific day, it could also be One Day in history, One Day when life changed (for better or for worse), One Day at a time or One Day in the future.

Either relating this to the Holocaust or subsequent genocides or perhaps to something in their own lives, this year’s competition was to write a poem or short prose based on the theme One Day.

We were delighted as always with the response from our students across the year groups, but as with all competitions, winners must be chosen. We picked one winner and two runners-up and Ms. Kattirtzi presented the prizes in the library last week.

Congratulations all the students who entered and special thanks to Avika, Isabella and Koyenum – their winning poems are here for everyone to enjoy.

Winner: One Day by Avika Year 8

When time so slowly ticks by, every passing second
We ironically become aware of all the many moments
Wasted, thrown away, on subjects that have beckoned
The worst in us; fighting against countless opponents

It started with one day, which evolved into many more
Everyone pitted against each other, fighting for their lives
Victims and attackers alike, engrossed in such a brutal war
Everyone went head to head, bringing forth the sorrowful cries

Concentration camps set up, spirits getting lower
No one protected, only the followers and oppressors
People who run forever, their sprints getting slower
Happy memories from so long ago, forgotten by compressors

Lives lost one after another, people mourned every day
After all of the trauma, society was almost bare
When the only people left were tyrants, hope drifted away
Soon after, the crimes were over, God had answered the prayers

It started with one day, one day no one could forget

Runner-Up: One Day by Isabella Year 12

One day.
You will forget these words
And so will I.
They will fade from your memory
Carried like a thistle seed
From your hand.
Snatched up in a gust
Or conveyed upon your breath.
Maybe it will take root elsewhere.
Or it will tangle in the branches overhead
Never reaching further than your sight.

One day
We will forget these words
Our memories striving to drift away.
But none of us will forget these days.
The sunlight of their smiling presence
In these days
Our days
Is not so easily snatched away.
My friends
Are like thistle seeds.
I want to hold their hands in mine
And delight again and again
In the softness of their company
And clutch our memories tightly
Against the mercurial wind.
Whether I recollect us wading through mud
Or through forests of paper
I see us in it together.

But when all of this is over
I will have to open my hands to grasping air
Trusting the wind to carry them on
And to carry me too
In its shifting current.
And while, scoured in the gale, we may forget
The exact wording of what was said
I will never forget
How their voices rang with laughter
And the way that sound
Lifted us into burning blue.

One day
If we are lucky
We might find ourselves settled in the same grass
Or, forsaking fortune
Our roots will have grown towards each other
Through the years
So that in reaching
We find that the other
Is never further than the breadth of a word
Or the breadth of this thistle seed
That I am still holding in my hand.

Runner-Up: One Day by Koyenum Year 9

One day.
One night.
Night of Broken Glass.
A night of terror.
A night of grief.
Shards littering the streets
Broken so they could never be fixed.
Buildings where once,
Communities grew,
And faith was strengthened;
Suddenly reduced
To nothing more than ash.
The fire swallowing
All hope for the future.

One day
One night
A day of liberation
A day of light
When at last
The reign of terror ended
Human rights
Properly defended
Communities free
To grow again
Their bodies and minds
Beginning to mend
Rising up from the ashes
And into the light
Hope for the future
Once again in sight.