Today’s poem has been chosen and introduced by Head of English, Mr Fernandes.

It is by Kamala Surayya. She was born in present-day Kerala in 1934, and she was a poet and novelist.

Surayya’s poem seems to be a fitting one for today. We will be celebrating World Book Day, which officially falls tomorrow. You will have some exciting Life Skills activities today, which you can also continue with on the School Birthday this Friday.

Like Surayya’s speaker, we will be concerned with words. Will we take the approach of her speaker in seeing their danger? Are they just ‘a nuisance’? Should we see them as ‘a blast of burning air’ or ‘a knife’?

Do we think that the speaker dislikes words, or is she telling us to be careful with them? If they do ‘grow on’ us ‘like leaves’, should we strive to make the words that we use as pleasant as possible? Is this itself a challenge? Who decides what words or types of language are acceptable? As our speaker states: ‘they/ Can be so many things’.

Is there a wonderful mystery attached to all words? Is this suggested by the two ellipses in the poem? Do you agree that your words come ‘From a silence, somewhere deep within…’?

As you do your reading this week, have a think about each of the striking words that you encounter. After all, we will be like Surayya’s speaker as we celebrate World Book Day by surrounding ourselves with words. We can join her in channelling Hamlet’s playful reply when he is asked what he is reading. We will all be looking at nothing but ‘Words, words, words.’

Words

All round me are words, and words and words,

They grow on me like leaves, they never

Seem to stop their slow growing

From within… But I tell myself, words

Are a nuisance, beware of them, they

Can be so many things, a

Chasm where running feet must pause, to

Look, a sea with paralysing waves,

A blast of burning air or,

A knife most willing to cut your best

Friend’s throat… Words are a nuisance, but

They grow on me like leaves on a tree,

They never seem to stop their coming,

From a silence, somewhere deep within…

By Kamala Surayya