The sound of hope

This poem is my contribution to 26 Leaps, a collaboration between writers’ group 26 and London’s Bloomsbury Festival.

The project celebrates people associated with Bloomsbury who have made a great ‘leap’ of some sort – in science, the arts, politics etc.

I wanted my contribution to celebrate young people in the area; children who haven’t made a big leap yet, but who carry our hopes for the future.

I worked with Christopher Hatton Primary School and its inspiring head teacher, Gwen Lee.

One lunchtime Gwen asked a series of children, what do you want to see happen in the world? And why?

We transcribed their answers, which gave me hundreds of words of inspiring stuff. I then set about turning their words into something that had the power of a poem.

I didn’t add any words of my own. But I changed the pronouns – from I to We. So, this is their voice.

Thanks to Gwen and the children who shared their hopes and trusted me with their words: Amelie, Bilal, Elizabeth, Ishaan, Julia, Kate, Khadeja, Maram, Mariam, Samuel and Tallulah