Heartbreaking poetry George Michael wrote at 11-years-old proves the star's early talent

12 March 2021, 15:20 | Updated: 17 March 2023, 12:06

Poems written by George Michael when he was just 11-years-old shows the star's amazing writing ability from a very young age.

George Michael's lyrical talents have been discovered thanks to some poems he wrote in 1974.

The two complex pieces - Sounds In The Night and The Story Of A Horse - were written by the 11-year-old star when he was at primary school.

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The grasp of emotion and language in the pieces shows George Michael's talents were already emerging when was in the equivalent of year 7.

The old yearbook was kept out of the public eye for twenty years and only unveiled in tribute to George after his death in 2017.

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George Michael's school friend, Penny Ling, came across the poems written by-the-then Georgios Panayiotou as she read through an old schoolbook from the 1970's, remembering George as an observant child who "absorbed everything".

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Penny added that George was "quiet and studious" when he attended Roe Green Junior School in Kingsbury, north London where he was taught creative writing by teacher Ian Greenwood.

His poem The Story Of A Horse is an emotional story of a lame horse escaping death by running away through a town.

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And the second poem Sounds In The Night is a clever ode to a blind professor - written under the alias of G. Panayiotou.

'The Story Of A Horse', by Georgios Panayiotou

Once there was a lonely horse, weeping on a stack of hay.

The gun was ready, the bullet was hot, the horse had broken a leg that day.

The dog was barking, the chickens were screaming, the cows were mooing, the sun was gleaming.

The farmer closed his eyes,

And dropped the gun,

he hadn't shot,

But the horse had run.

He ran through the streets,

With loud a sound,

And then he fell, upon the ground.

The townspeople said, that a horse that is lame, can never really be brought to be tame.

They said he was mad, that he should be slain...And never was he seen again.

'Sounds In The Night' by Georgios Panayiotou

Beyond the world of sight, there is a sixth dimension of sound, and in many cases, sound beats sight, and the reason?

Sight is blacked out by the night, and that is where sounds comes in.

It stands to reason that what you can't see.... you can hear!

And the same applies for daytime, only in reverse.

In other words, what you can't hear, you can see

And that is why I am turning the subject to night.

Now what I've forgotten to tell you, I'm sure something slipped my tongue.

Ah! Now I remember, you'll never guess what I have to say to you...... I am blind!!!

Professor Whatsisname

(Alias G. Panayiotou) 

Penny, who was a few years below George at school, remembers playing games with him on their local estate.

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Speaking to the Daily Mail she recalled: "The reason I remember him is he lived at the back of my best friend's house in Burnt Oak, London.

"She lived in a cul-de-sac and over the back was a bit of wasteland and sometimes we would play in the cul-de-sac if we needed a hard surface - George Michael joined in."

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"We would play cowboys and indians, pogo-sticking - how long you could bounce on a stick without falling off - hopscotch, the usual kids games."

She added: 'I probably knew him from about six to nine years old, so he would have been nine to eleven roughly.

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"I found him to be one of these people to be reasonably quiet and studious. He absorbed what was going on around him.

"He was not a flash person or didn't like to show off. He didn't stand out as been exceptional or different. He was just like the rest of us."

The Story of Wham! told by George Michael