Blood,

It runs,

It flows,

It glows, red;

Blood,

Light red,

Dark red,

Blood red;

Blood,

Red blood cells,

White blood cells,

Oxygenating the body;

Blood,

We need it to live,

It flows until we die,

It is our life-force;

Blood,

It is the key to our creation,

It is always different,

It is blood.


- Copyright © Simon Hearnshaw

Poem published with permission.

Introduction

Sometimes, even the unlikeliest of people produce something decent. Produce something people like. Produce something worthy of being published. This five stanza (verse) poem could be that decent thing for Simon Hearnshaw, who pulled it out of a magic hat one day¹. It may not be long. It may not be brilliant. It may not be the best thing in the world - but it may also be Simon Hearnshaw's only claim to fame. Only time will tell.

Information about the author

Simon Hearnshaw was born in Chesterfield, England on the 13th January 1987. He is not a famous or well known author or poet, and does not regularly write poems.

Story of the poem

Simon Hearnshaw tells his story of the poem below:

One evening, I sat down at my computer (an activity I do regularly) and looked at my e-mail. I noticed a forwarded e-mail which linked to a website where I could obtain a free t-shirt. Oh great I thought, filled in the internet form, and continued.

After submitting the form, I was given the chance to write a poem to submit to a poetry competition. 20-lines maximum. I was in a hurry, but I thought to myself 'Why not - I might win', and took two minutes writing a poem. I then submitted it and carried on with my regular internet business. The poem is about blood, so I think I must have been thinking about vampires or watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer or something at the time.

About a month later, I received a letter that said my poem had been chosen to be published in a collection of poetry. I also received an e-mail inviting me to a poetry conference to read out my poem and receive an award. It appeared I was a semi-finalist in this poetry competition, and had the chance to win a lot of money by going to the conference and reading my poem out to everyone. Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend, but I am proud that my poem will be published.

Extra Information

The competition was one held at Poetry.com, a great website where people can see good poems by ordinary people like Simon Hearnshaw. Simon's poem can be found on that website using the 'Search for a poet' feature, and if Simon decides to submit any more poems to that site, then they can also be found using the search feature.

Due to the 20-line restriction for the poem, a whole 4 line stanza that contained vampires was removed from the poem. Unfortunately, since Simon Hearnshaw never figured his poem would get anywhere, he never made a copy of the stanza, and it is lost forever.

Is Simon Hearnshaw a brilliant future poet, or will this be the only poem of his that will ever appear in print? I guess we'll just have to wait and see.