In October we submitted a number of entries in the Black History Month creative writing competition, where pupils were asked to write about an inspirational heroine under the title 'Salute the Sisters'. 

We have just found out that Zoe's poem 'I Salute' has made the final 20. She will be attending an awards ceremony later this month in the House of Commons. 

Her poem took an original take on the theme, instead choosing to acknowledge all the heroines who remain anonymous and whose voices have been silenced. 

We wish Zoe the best of luck - her poem can be read below:

I Salute

I salute the silence

The absences and the shadows

The ripped out threads from history’s tapestry

The hole in my heart that tells me something

Someone

Is missing

 

I salute

Those who fought before

Those who fight now

And those who will fight on

Unknown and unrecognised

 

I salute all

Who do not

Strive for a glorious chapter of history’s pages

But simply do it

Because it is right

 

I salute the ghosts

Of women whose writing is lost

Of women who fought in long-forgotten battles

Of women who strode into now extinguished lights

Of women

Black women

 

I salute the everyday

The woman who cuts my hair

The woman who passes me in the street

The woman who serves me at the till

I see the secret stories, hidden in their eyes

No one will know them

But there is power in their anonymity

 

I salute all the

Artists, businesswomen, models, poets, authors, politicians, activists

Lost in the gaps between the floorboards of history

Scrubbed out by the dictators of our past

Who found them

Too brave, too loud, too fierce, too bold

 

I salute my sisters

From every walk of life, from every country

Those who I know

And those who I will never meet

 

I salute with hope

That one day

The silence

Will end