The youngest member of Airedale Writers' Circle is the winner of the organisation's latest competition. Oakbank School pupil Andrew Buckley, was presented with a leather briefcase by Peter Blacks for his poem 'Briefcase', printed here, which won the poetry competition. The 15-year-old had to write a poem on the theme of a brief case.

Briefcase

For a brief case,

I should make my case brief,

Lest you should reveal

My secrets and my grief.

The documents within you

Are not very long,

But a brief letter in a briefcase

Sings a kind of song.

Briefly I write to you

To encapsulate my words,

In one brief poem with a brief objective,

Briefly, to be heard!

My brief verse has now ended,

I hope with little haste,

And briefly now it shall be placed

In my fine and faithful old brief case.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.