This work was first published in Spread the Word’s Young Writers Collective Anthology, 2025. This anthology stands as a testament to the courage, creativity, and growth of a remarkable group of young poets who have spent seven months exploring the power of language and self-expression. The anthology is more than a collection of poems—it is a celebration of emerging voices, of stories told with boldness and vulnerability.
All of the poems can be read here on our website, or you can download the Young Writer’s Collective Anthology to read as a PDF.
testimonial by Maisie Faul
I don’t remember
the age that kept me
mushy, soft-gummed and
I don’t remember my first taste of toothpaste
its gentle routine its first introduction to the last stimulation before bed
bum on the toilet seat and bristles
ensuring
future tastes
mum would pledge a pea on my instrument
let the tap cry for a future that is suddenly here
so slice my eyes
Into thin naked numbers
that roll around
that edge the plug
dregs
of some bullshit
account.
We still
sit
we still
praise
we still
balm,
the decaying of my
self
Is a
self
righteous account
of a deepdown
breezeblock.
About Maisie Faul
Maisie Faul has recently graduated from London Contemporary Dance School where she developed a practice that integrates writing and text for performance into movement. Her writing tackles themes of home, and time. While studying she questioned the performative element of composing a text culminating in a part written, part performed dissertation piece. She worked on a team of intern editors for a Dance Art Journal publication of these works.