This term, our Poets Laureate were commissioned to write a poem about one of the many animals that calls HBS and its environs ‘home’.

Did you know that a pair of peregrine falcons build their nest in the spire of St. Jude’s every year?

Many students will have noticed the family of foxes that wanders into HBS occasionally, and the magpies who populate the school site.

The result was three fantastic poems which have been illustrated beautifully by friends of the poets laureate.

We hope you enjoy:

• ‘The Magpie welcomes Spring’ by Kyara (KS3 Poet Laureate) illustrated by Hiba (Y9)
• ‘Spirebound’ by Nidu (KS4 Poet Laureate) illustrated by Tanu (Y7)
• ‘The Fox’ by Tvisha (KS5 Poet Laureate) illustrated by Irina (Y12)

 Mr. Graff

The Magpie welcomes Spring

by Kyara

She lands by the doors as the morning begins,
Black feathers, a sharp white flash, and a sparkle in her wings.
The sky’s painted a dull grey, still heavy with night,
But she cuts through the clouds like a sliver of light.

Across fences she dances, from rooftop to rooftop she flies,
A bold flash of white breaking though the dull winter skies.
Jumping from rooftop to treetop she claims every view,
And branches and benches she weaves through.

Spring waits nearby, you can feel it draw near,
In the softening wind, and as the skies slowly clear
Seedlings in pots push through soil, shy but strong,
And though frost still lingers, she knows it won’t last for long.

She flits past the classrooms where pencils tap slow,
Peeking in windows, creeping to and fro.
A notebook flutters, while the magpie takes flight,
And she darts through the gardens, bold and bright.

We watch her as we eat our lunch,
Under her feet, small twigs and branches crunch.
As we go to our next lessons, I see her out the corner of my eye.
But before I go near, she retires to the sky

She dances through puddles that glimmer like glass,
And glides past the rooftops, then over the grass.
Each flap of her wings shakes the cold from the air,
And leaves a faint warmth in her swift, daring care.

The magpie squawks loud, a bold, cheeky sound,
Ripping open the gray as she flies around.
And just for a moment the everlasting frost seems easier to bear,
And laughter floats lightly in the crisp morning air.

And though the cold still lurks and hasn’t quite gone,
The magpie has heralded the brightening dawn.
For spring is no rumor, no distant delight….
It circles the school, and it’s finally in sight.

Spirebound

By Nidu

If St. Judes’ is to be the place you pass without noticing,
then, my darlings, we are its silent sentinels –
the two falcons that once tore the wind in half,
whose wings could slice clouds and carve storms,
strike down shadows, with beaks and claws
now blunted by the city’s pulse. We wait,
our bodies bound by false taxonomies,
wings folded, perched atop stone and bell
and shaped by each spring that slowly carves us
into your ways. Our reign is now
foreign, its freedom a language we have almost forgotten.

We make do with the sky that stretches high above
knowing that, like you, one day
we will look up at this unbroken sheet of blue
and know not what to do with it.

The Fox

By Tvisha

I saw you this morning
between Bigwood Building
and the main building,
where the grass was wet with dew,
green pushing through what winter had left behind.

Your body holds instructions
no teacher ever wrote down.
Turn your head to the wind.
Sniff the air for information.
Move towards whatever promises survival.

Is it memory maybe?
Or instinct?
They say instinct is animal.
As if that makes it inferior.
As if it is something to grow out of.
You make decisions before doubt can reach them.
I stand still even when nothing is physically stopping me.

Nothing here was made for you.
Not the benches,
Not the imposing brick,
Not the rush of students to the canteen.
But you don’t look trapped.
Even here.

You leave prints that fade.
I leave marks that stay:
percentages,
grades,
scores.
Your eyes meet mine with certainty.
As if you are asking me the same question.
What are you waiting for?