Radiant highways whose vistas gleam,

Leading me on, under crimson leaves,

To the opaline gates of the Castles of Dream.

Amy Lowell

My Hat

Mother said if I wore this hat

I should be certain to get off with the right sort of chap

Well, look where I am now, on a desert island

With so far as I can see no one at hand

I know what has happened though I suppose Mother wouldn’t see

This hat being so strong has completely run away with me

I had the feeling it was beginning to happen the moment I put it on

What a moment that was as I rose up, I rose up like a flying swan

As strong as a swan too, why see how far my hat has flown me away

It took us a night to come and then a night and a day

And all the time the swan wing in my hat waved beautifully

Ah, I thought, How this hat becomes me.

First the sea was dark but then it was pale blue

And still the wing beat and we flew and we flew

A night and a day and a night, and by the old right way

Between the sun and the moon we flew until morning day.

It is always early morning here on this peculiar island

The green grass grows into the sea on the dipping land

Am I glad I am here? Yes, well, I am,

It’s nice to be rid of Father, Mother and the young man

There’s just one thing causes me a twinge of pain,

If I take my hat off, shall I find myself home again?

So in this early morning land I always wear my hat

Go home, you see, well I wouldn’t run a risk like that.

Stevie Smith

Functional Skills Maths

If there are 4.5 litres in a gallon and

Gary’s car does 52 miles to the gallon and

there’s a petrol station 5 kilometres away,

where petrol is 2p per litre cheaper,

is it worth Gary making the extra journey?

When Gary pulls onto the ring-road

he senses a darker side,

beyond the edge of sodium town.

He knows the woods are waiting for him,

flicking stars between their fingertips.

He parks in a lay-by, leaves the car,

eyes wide to the deep, black heart of the wood,

and just like in a fairy tale,

he is never seen again.

You must show your workings, you must

explain assumptions used.

Values must be clearly stated.

Helen Cadbury

The Burning

It was the hard winter she came,

frozen larks plummeting through the gloam like falling stars,

each pail in the yard a slattern’s looking glass.

Each dusk, the house cobwebbed by creeping frost,

my husband slipped like a knife from an oyster,

my sons nestled like dormice in their cots,

I stood at my black window and oh

the cold it pressed upon me like a lover,

held its hands to my throat, my knees.