The Sole of a Poem

Reflection

Poetry is an abstract form that can connect people across cultures and countries through the expression of shared human experiences. Therefore, as a class we have written verses from our talismanic poems onto canvas shoes and decorated them. This represents how through literary forms, likes poetry, we are able to put on a new pair of shoes and take a walk through an unfamiliar or alternate perspective. The power of poetry lies in its ability to transport us to different places, times and experiences.

However, we also want our poems to literally connect us to others around the world. Therefore, these shoes are going to be donated to the Cambodian Children’s Fund, an organisation that provides education and support to over 2400 children and their families who are in the heart of Cambodia’s most impoverished communities from the former dump of Steung Meanchey. We hope that our poems are able to provide the children who receive them with both a sense of global community and much needed practical protection as they navigate through the hazardous terrain around them.

~ Kate Persse, Teacher

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This was the Winning School Installation for Poetry Object 2017

Judge's Notes:
"St Mary’s Anglican Girls’ School’s installation is based on a clear and powerful idea. It takes that simple object, a shoe, and allows it to say something about bodies, movement, and words. Our feet in our shoes walk daily places, they move us through the world safely and efficiently. The installation connects poetry to this through the very simple idea of placing poems on shoes along with wonderful visual decorations. So poetry is afoot. Art is afoot. Poetry moves with us. We can take our words on whatever short, or long journeys we make every day. This installation also says a lot about the process of writing, that poems must shape themselves to the environment in which they are presented, published. The shoes themselves have a limited space so you would have to think very clearly and shrewdly about which words should adorn the shoes. And the words also become part of the body that wears the shoes and walks the path. Poetry can go everywhere. And just as importantly, this project shows how poetry can be part of a creative gift. This school is making a gift of these poem shoes to impoverished people in Cambodia. A gift that contains poetry, a gift that is both practical and inspiring. In all senses, well
done."
~ Jill Jones, Judge, Poetry Object 2016