Creative Writing competition winning poem ‘Sutton College Doors’.

Creative Writing competition winner Caroline Johnstone was delighted to hear that her entry had won.

Following the idea of a short story or poem under the theme of ‘Learning as an Adult’ , Caroline’s entry can be found below and was a clear winner from the judging panel. Caroline attends the ‘Creative Writing for Wellbeing’ course and her tutor Sara Nesbitt said Caroline’s work is a ‘Fantastic poem! Very moving’.

The brief was to write a poem/short story based around the theme of learning as an adult. As examples, it could be a story about lifelong learning, a poem about studying a certain subject, returning to the classroom or how it made you feel to finish a course.

The poem will be read as part of the student achievement awards evening on Thursday 16th June.

Sutton College Doors
It is a small
step,
a giant step
to go through that door,
and then you pause
Look around and find
that there are more,
more doors.

There are the ones that you have found before
Marked ‘Private’
and
‘Keep Out’.
Don’t step back now
Don’t let them stop you
because
there are so many other doors waiting,

and you have just been given
the key, the magic pass that will
open them for you.
Stand back,
take a deep breath and let them
swing towards you.

There are others that wait for you
to find the right button to press. There’s always
help, no need to push against them,
someone will show
how they
can take you where you want to be.

Some open only to those in the know.
perhaps one day
they could
open for you.

Then there are the ones that say
Fire Exit, Open in an Emergency’
Look they say, if things gets bad
This is a safe place for you to be.

Some are solid, just to reassure you
In others the glass shows the world
Outside, waiting for you
to take another
step on, to open that next
waiting door.