100. Tribute Poem by Jaden Knight

Ok this is a tribute to all those people
who have helped me with my poetry
from friends to teachers
but I guess I’ll use a few of their names
as only they know who they are

It was Anthony Masters who got me started
on the interests of writing in 97
during the reading festival at school
I will never forget that day
he showed me that I can just let my mind go
and that great results can be obtained that way

With the encouragement of Jane Russell
my English teacher at the time
I began to try my hand at writing
but despite many attempts
I had nothing that I felt worked properly

It was not until 99 that I really got going
Simon Edney a poet himself published many times
gave me the excuse to use my mind
he even put some of my writings in the school magazine
and gave me the boost I needed

By the end of 2000
thanks largely to Anthony and Simon
I amassed more than 25 poems on my PC
as yet none were published
but I was pleased so far
and looked to reach the 50 by the end of ’02

In my quest for the next land mark
I found my greatest critic
Ben Godsmark, a friend from school
who shared his work with me
I’ve never admitted it before now
but while talking to him I gained many ideas
some of which have been used
but I will not tell you in which writings

Encouraged by the competition of Tim Howard
a fellow pupil and friend
I passed the 50 and looked for the next mark to beat
but over confidence had done me in
I had burnt myself out from trying too hard
and was then in my mind without any inspiration


That was all changed by an ex girlfriend of mine
when we split up
she used her friends to spread their lies
I hit back with my poetry
4 poems were written thanks to her
but she has never seen any of them

Growing stronger in confidence
the subjects of my writings seemed to change at will
I took ideas from some of my work colleagues
and used some in my writings as I kept going
so that by the end of 04 I had reached 75
within the time limit I set my self

Beginning of 06 thanks to various sources
I had attained 99 and was looking out for the century
I still had none published
but was looking at ways of doing so
I needed to be patient
as I knew that it wouldn’t come in a rush
though I tried mighty hard to get it written

Thanks to all those people that I have mentioned
and a couple of others who I have not
I have reached my primary target
100 poems of which this is the last
and though I may have written them all myself
I would not have done many without them