National Poetry Day 2026: Wonder
This year's National Poetry Day was marked with an online assembly led by Mr Dilley, Head of English. Picking up on this year's theme of wonder, the assembly explored the Polish Nobel-prize-winning poet Wisława Szymborska whose poems often encourage us to pay attention to the small but wonderful things in the world around us. The assembly featured two A Level Further Maths students reading Szymborska's poem about the number Pi, and a video of students around the school (including some students reading a poem while playing Twister!) reading her poem 'Miracle Fair' in which she describes lots of everyday miracles that we can often take for granted. Inspired by this poem, students and staff were invited to contribute to our own 'Miracle Fair' poem by sharing examples of everyday miracles they are grateful for. We received so many responses that the full poem runs to five pages, but you can read a shorter version of our poem below.
Kendrick’s Miracle Fair
after Wislawa Szymborska
by the staff and students of Kendrick School
First miracle of the day:
an alarm of feathers, sweetly waking us up,
indifferent to whether or not we are ready for the new day.
A miracle, standard-issue:
the way that steam rises from your morning tea,
like a plume of whispered promises
A miracle, off the record:
hearing the birds chirp every morning on the way to school
and feeling alive when I hear them.
Just another miracle going about its business:
through my bus window,
I see gentle pink rays of sunshine
peeking through purple clouds as it rises,
smeared across the sky like paint.
A pocket-sized miracle, easily mislaid:
how music can change my mood within five seconds.
A miracle, easily mistaken for background noise:
seeing my family and friends every day.
Disguised as routine, a modest miracle:
the greenery outside with birds singing
and squirrels collecting acorns.
A miracle caught out of the corner of your eye:
a young blackbird leaves the nest,
as though leaving were nothing much at all.
The air holds it, and the sky becomes possible.
Somehow, the small bird is flying.
Nothing short of a miracle, technically:
that each of us is a unique expression of genetic code
from an unbroken chain of life spanning billions of years,
connecting us to the earliest life forms on Earth.
Three miracles for the price of one:
every day, a new creature is born,
every day, a child will laugh
and every day, a new lesson is learnt.
An accidental miracle, caught off guard:
the sunlight sidling through the trees,
filling me with quiet hope.
A miracle, given half a chance:
I wake up every morning tired,
but go to sleep wishing I could repeat the day again.
A miracle working the late shift:
closing our eyes in a noisy world,
to retreat into the safe kingdoms of our imagination,
where every memory and quiet hope is kept,
waiting for us to visit.
The miracle of miracles:
that our hearts keep beating,
even as we close our eyes
and dream of places far from here
Last but not least:
waking up the next day -
tomorrow is not guaranteed.