Lexi is Highly Commended at National Writing Competition

Huge congratulations to Lexi whose poem 'Testament from the Secret Annexe' was Highly Commended at the National Anne Frank Creative Writing Awards. This is a brilliant achievement, as the award received over one thousand entries. The adjudicators included Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo.

Here is Lexi's poem - 

Testament from the Secret Annexe

 

There is a house on Prinsengracht

Whose shuttered eyes once hid its pain

To see a girl’s world torn apart

Her life though brief, not lived in vain

 

She’d seemed more precious than a gem

And rare, like species near extinct

But, as I ventured through her home,

Her prison! I began to think…

 

She’s just an ordinary girl

In some ways very much like me!

She wants to decorate her room

She loves to keep her diary

 

There, all her thoughts and dreams unfold

Her fantasies of life and love

Still, while the end could not be told

She found her strength from God above

 

And, though betrayed, when evil came

Extinguishing the family’s light

The words that Anne had left behind

Gave future people great insight

 

For where does doubt and hatred start

If not in children taught these ways

If open minds could play their part

Then we might hope for brighter days

 

I feel the power of words that reach

Across the years to speak to me

Her diary, her hopes and fears

Became her greatest legacy

 

She dreamed of fame and fame she found

Though, not in life but through cruel end

Her chequered book, now world renowned

Became the medicine that might mend

 

I came away with great desire

To read, to write, to meet, to know

Your message Anne so very clear

That, as a human, I can grow

#GodstoweSuccessful