Edexcel GCSE Poetry Anthology

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22 Belfast Confetti Suddenly as the riot squad moved in, it was raining exclamation marks, Nuts, bolts, nails, car-keys. A fount of broken type. And the explosion. Itself - an asterisk on the map. This hyphenated line, a burst of rapid fi re… I was trying to complete a sentence in my head but it kept stuttering, 5 All the alleyways and side streets blocked with stops and colons. I know this labyrinth so well - Balaclava, Raglan, Inkerman, Odessa Street - Why can’t I escape? Every move is punctuated. Crimea Street. Dead end again. A Saracen, Kremlin-2 mesh. Makrolon face-shields. Walkietalkies. What is My name? Where am I coming from? Where am I going? A fusillade of question-marks. Ciaran Carson
Our Sharpeville I was playing hopscotch on the slate when miners roared past in lorries, their arms raised, signals at a crossing, their chanting foreign and familiar, 5 like the call and answer of road gangs across the veld, building hot arteries from the heart of the Transvaal mine. I ran to the gate to watch them pass. And it seemed like a great caravan 10 moving across the desert to an oasis I remembered from my Sunday School book: olive trees, a deep jade pool, men resting in clusters after a long journey, the danger of the mission still around them 15 and night falling, its silver stars just like the ones you got for remembering your Bible texts. Then my grandmother called from behind the front door, her voice a stiff broom over the steps: ‘Come inside; they do things to little girls.’ 20 For it was noon, and there was no jade pool. Instead, a pool of blood that already had a living name and grew like a shadow as the day lengthened. The dead, buried in voices that reached even my gate, the chanting men on the ambushed trucks, 25 these were not heroes in my town, but maulers of children, doing things that had to remain nameless. And our Sharpeville was this fearful thing that might tempt us across the wellswept streets. 30 If I had turned I would have seen brocade curtains drawn tightly across sheer net ones, known there were eyes behind both, heard the dogs pacing in the locked yard next door. But, walking backwards, all I felt was shame, 35 at being a girl, at having been found at the gate, at having heard my grandmother lie and at my fear her lie might be true. Walking backwards, called back, I returned to the closed rooms, home. Ingrid de Kok Collection B 23
Page 1 and 2: Edexcel GCSE Poetry Anthology GCSE
Page 3: Contents Collection A: Relationship
Page 6 and 7: Relationships 2 Valentine Not a red
Page 8 and 9: Relationships 4 Sonnet 116 Let me n
Page 10 and 11: Relationships 6 Even Tho Man I love
Page 12 and 13: Relationships 8 One Flesh Lying apa
Page 14 and 15: Relationships 10 My Last Duchess Fe
Page 16 and 17: Relationships 12 Pity me not becaus
Page 18 and 19: Relationships 14 Nettles My son age
Page 20 and 21: Relationships 16 Lines to my Grandf
Page 22 and 23: Relationships 18 04/01/07 The telep
Page 24 and 25: 20 Half-caste Excuse me standing on
Page 28 and 29: 24 Exposure Our brains ache, in the
Page 30 and 31: 26 Catrin I can remember you, child
Page 32 and 33: 28 The Class Game How can you tell
Page 34 and 35: 30 Hitcher Simon Armitage This poem
Page 36 and 37: 32 O What is that Sound W. H. Auden
Page 38 and 39: 34 Conscientious Objector I shall d
Page 40 and 41: 36 Invasion Soon they will come. Fi
Page 42 and 43: 38 City Jungle Rain splinters town.
Page 44 and 45: 40 Postcard from a Travel Snob I do
Page 46 and 47: 42 My mother’s kitchen I will inh
Page 48 and 49: 44 Our Town with the Whole of India
Page 50 and 51: 46 In Romney Marsh As I went down t
Page 52 and 53: 48 Composed upon Westminster Bridge
Page 54 and 55: 50 London Snow When men were all as
Page 56 and 57: 52 Orkney / This Life It is big sky
Page 58 and 59: 54 The Stone Hare Think of it waiti
Page 60 and 61: 56 On the Life of Man What is our l
Page 62 and 63: 58 A Consumer’s Report The name o
Page 64 and 65: 60 Pessimism for Beginners When you
Page 66 and 67: 62 No Problem I am not de problem B
Page 68 and 69: 64 Living Space There are just not
Page 70 and 71: 66 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 The world is
Page 72 and 73: 68 Zero Hour Tomorrow all the train
Page 74 and 75: 70 Do not go gentle into that good
Page 76:
Acknowledgements We are grateful to
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Edexcel GCSE Poetry Anthology

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