Thank you to Jayne King for her poem, “The invigilator”. The below poem is copyright Jayne King and may not be reproduced without the explicit written permission of Jayne King.
—
Being an invigilator,
Is there anything more boring?
Scanning the hall.
Toing and froing.
Trying to be alert,
So I can respond quickly to a raised hand.
Wishing I could sit like the others.
But instead, having to stand.
How slowly the time passes,
Seemingly standing still.
There’s movement all around me,
But somehow the time stays still.
Seconds turn to minutes,
A minute lasts an hour.
Some students offer small, tired smiles,
Others just sit and glower.
Pangaea Poetry, an international poetry organisation, are looking for poets from across the world to take part in their 3rd annual poetry slam in July.
Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he is interested in technique. There is no mechanical way to get the writing done, no shortcut. The young writer would be a fool to follow a theory. Teach yourself by your own mistakes; people learn only by error. The good artist believes that nobody is good enough to give him advice. He has supreme vanity. No matter how much he admires the old writer, he wants to beat him.
