Shahzadgai Khan

Hello! My name is Shahzadgai Khan; friends call me Shaju. I am 11 years old and go to Firs Hill Community Primary School. I have one sister, Ferial, who also likes to write poems. Our mother, Nazma Begum, has encouraged me most in my writing. I am also inspired by her poet-friends, Aunty Debjani and Aunty Rashida. All of us are members of Bengali Women’s Support Group. I like to write a lot of poems about sceneries and nature; also about historic and special buildings. My favourite among my own poems is one that I wrote last November when Bengali Women’s Support Group members went to Kala Kahani’s writing workshop. It was led by Shamshad Khan at the Guildhall in Leicester. I was 10 then and the youngest in the workshop. My poem is called ‘The Old Building’. I hope to write many more poems and to get them published.

THE OLD BUILDING

I wonder what happened here a long time ago,
What mysterious secrets were kept here.
How interesting it is!
Its beauty strangely haunts me,
As if it was kept hidden in a dark hollow hole.
It’s scary but interesting,
So you can’t keep away
From its enchanting portraits of people
Who were here centuries ago,
And its traditional lantern writing.
All is kept here as a dark deep secret,
That no one can open - and no one ever will.