An Empty Nothing The hollow space inside of your soul
never ending hurting beneath you.
Every bad thing imaginable rolled in to a huge ball, and thrown straight at you, leaving an empty nothing right through you, taking away the goodness of you, the pure white soul, the clean of sin’s character just the blackest unspeckled space in enclosed emptiness.
By Natalia Pisani, age 13, who receives The Forward Book of Poetry, donated by Forward Publishing. Submitted by Angela Rayner of Trinity Catholic High School, Woodford Green, Essex, who receives the BPTeacher’s Poetry Resource file, published and donated by the Poetry Society. For Poetry Society events, ring 071 240 4810.
The raw pain of human loneliness is powerfully evoked by this poem. The space inside is an emptiness so real, so palpable, that it is a ball “thrown straight at you”. the soul becomes a black hole that swallows its own goodness. The image in the final lines, and the order of the words, are strikingly original. “Blackest unspeckled space” will stay with me, and the idea that pain makes a void of the heart.
Matthew Sweeney will be the guest poet next term. Please send poems by November 25 to The TES, Admiral House, 66-68 East Smithfield, London E1 9XY.
