A flame burns A wheel turns.

A star glows The wind blows.

The sky is grey What did you say?

A leaf drops down I am going to frown.

A car goes by Please don’t die!

By Kerry Hutchison (Year 8) who receives Michael Rosen’s Mind the Gap (Scholastic). Submitted by Kate Travers of Scaltback Middle School, Elizabeth Avenue, Newmarket, Cambridgeshire, who receives the Poetry Society teachers’ newsletter, a quarterly bulletin which includes features on innovative approaches to poetry in the classroom as well as news on the latest resources, events and issues. For Poetry Society events, ring 0171- 240 4810.

Almost anything I say will spoil the simplicity of this piece. To break it down, with two beats a line and perfect rhyme it rattles through seven images and three statements almost too quickly to notice. So there is a sense of the whole world in a rush - flames, wheels, stars, wind, sky, leaves, cars. In amongst it, Kerry doesn’t quite catch what’s going on: “What did you say?”. She’s bothered: “I am going to frown”. It grows into a sense of worry and doom - “Please don’t die!”. A seemingly simple but superbly unsettling poem.

Please submit poems for next term’s TES Young Poet of the Week by July 31. Poems, up to 20 lines long, on any subject, should be sent to The TES, Admiral House, 66-68, East Smithfield, London E1 9XY. Please include the poet’s name, age and school and the teacher’s name.