Richard the best of the verse (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

Richard the best of the verse

11:54am Thursday 13th October 2005 in

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A ST ALBANS schoolboy has been named as one of the young poets of the year in an international competition.

Richard Osmond, who is in the upper sixth at St Albans School, was one of 15 winners of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award.

His poem, Trivia, which addresses, he says, "the inability of language to capture experience" was one of a group of poems the 18-year-old was encouraged to send in for the competition.

Richard says: "Our school had a creative writing competition which I won and I was encouraged to submit my poems for Young Poet Of The Year by the school poet in residency Poet In The City and musician John Mole."

Richard says he likes to deal with "philosophical ideas" in his poems. He says: "The poem is about the difference between writing and experiencing. There is a paradox when you can't describe what life is really like but you can intensify it with your creation."

The application form for the competition included some space for biographical details. Richard lists his interests as "croquet, playing the ukele and juggling".

"I like to be different," he says.

The prizegiving ceremony is to be held today (Thursday) at the IMAX cinema in Waterloo, London. Attending the ceremony will be Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, BBC Radio 3 poet Ian McMillan, editor of Carcanet Press Michael Schmidt and former winner of the Foyle Young Poet of the Year contest Helen Mort.

The prize of a residential writers' course in Shropshire in February will give Richard a chance to meet the other winners.

Trivia, by Richard Osmond As a baby I said nothing as the sun Flowed into my eyes and the wonder Of the "too big to even think" world Was beautiful. It was left undefiled Until I began to speak I cut out photos from magazines And made a collage of the world That I taped across my window I argued so much about birdsong That I never heard it.