Daisy: 2nd place poem 1984 Surrey Advertiser

Second place aged 16 in the Surrey Advertiser Poetry Competition!

“A quiet poem for second place, clearly spaced and taking the eye very much at its own speed. There is no attempt to disturb the set tone by inserting anything which approaches the startling. I felt that Doina Cornell knew precisely what she was aiming for and achieved it.” Ian Caws, Judge.

Roger McGough presented us with the prizes and we were asked to read our winning poem and then another. I recall he looked impressed by my second poem, Tiger.

The Daisy

I crush the earth in my hand

into a firm ball:

yet it crumbles easily into moist fragments.

I hurt others as they hurt me,

yet why am I crying?

If I were a daisy you might

consider me a weed:

choke and wither me, trample on me

till nothing was left.

If I were a daisy

I would consider myself beautiful, not worthy

of death before my time:

even though I myself am nothing

I like the daisies.

Why should the daisy be

a weed?

© Doina Cornell 2024

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