Teen's Anzac war tribute illuminated

Year 13 Tauranga Girls' College student Annie Connor and her Anzac Day poem that has been transformed into illuminated calligraphy by Ray Crafts of Gate Pa. Photo / John Borren

A 15-minute burst of creativity by Tauranga Girls' College student Annie Connor has been immortalised into a stunning piece of illuminated calligraphy.

Her poem, inspired by the poppies that grew among the World War I carnage of Flanders Fields, not only won the school's poetry competition but touched hundreds when it was read aloud during Tauranga RSA's Anzac Day dawn service.

Tauranga's master of the ancient art of illuminated calligraphy, Ray Crafts, was among those at the emotional Gallipoli centenary service.

"The poem really struck a chord with me," he said.

Mr Crafts lost no time in approaching the school to put his special touch on the words that tugged so strongly at his heart strings.

The 79-year-old said the poem captured what he felt when he visited some of New Zealand's WWI battlegrounds in Belgium and France.

Using skills introduced to him by his grandfather and developed by studying 13th to 15th century manuscripts, it took 18 hours to transform the poem into a different sort of artwork.

Beautifully produced on Italian 300gm acid-free paper, using archival Indian ink, gouache water colours and gold leaf, the poem was now on permanent display in the college library.

"I am very pleased with it, and I am my own worst critic. Annie was quite overcome when she saw it," he said.

Mr Crafts' appreciation of the poem was deepened by his own family's army traditions including his 41 years in the territorials, his father's service in World War II and uncle in WWI.

Annie, 17, said she wrote the poem in 15 minutes, tweaked a couple of lines, and sent it off. The poem sprung from a line that had been revolving in her head, "and still the poppies grow", and the line became the title.

She said she appreciated hearing that people had phoned the school to say how much they had been touched by her poem read at the service by college head girl Ana Morris and published in the Bay of Plenty Times.

"My family were quite proud."

The Gallipoli centenary had started her thinking about the war and the realisation of how her family history turned on her great grandfather surviving spinal meningitis caught in Egypt on his way to the Western Front in 1916.

Nursed back to health in Scotland, he returned to New Zealand without seeing active service.