Poetry Competition
The first thing I have to say is what a difficult task I had in judging this competition. I’m aware of what a cliché it is to say that the standard was incredibly high… but it was! There was an overall feeling of confidence and competence in the tone of the writing and I was left with the impression that entrants were avid readers, as well as writers, of poetry, as there was an impressive breadth and depth of poetic form.
It was interesting to note how wide and diverse the themes visited were and also how in some instances themes overlapped. Many people tackled the big themes of love and death, some took more personal journeys to do with illness and addiction, and the conjuring up of nature and city-scapes played their parts. The approach to poetic form differed too from freely meandering to short, staccato rhythms. Some went for a prescribe structure ‘Thirteen Ways to Look at…’ or very traditional rhyme schemes and the poems went from the briefest of line counts to narratives of epic proportions! And each voice unique and individual.
It took several very thorough read-throughs before I could even begin to think about the whittling process. However once winnowing was underway I had to develop an eye for the tiny imperfection – a mis-placed adjective, an uncomfortable line end, a subtle change in tone that made me ‘come out’ of the poem, just for a second.
In the end it was extremely difficult to choose the winning poems out of my long-, and then short-, list – but choose I must, and I felt each of the three finalists had a different approach to the other but that all three poems were well-crafted and confident in their voice.
Kate Tym
Poetry Competition Judge 2012
Poetry Competition Winners:
First Place:
Desert Tales by Margaret Eddershaw
Second Place:
Freddie and Chloe Visit Grandma by Joanna Campbell
Third Place:
A Death in the Family by G W Colkitto
Runners Up:
Sea Dreams by Chris Marcic
On Sandylands Prom by Susan O'Connor
Old Blanket by Sonja Benskin Mesher
The Taxidermist by Angela Drinnan
It Flew To You by Susan Daniels
Flash by Paul McMahon
The School Run by Carole Page
Narcissus at the Window by Margaret Eddershaw
The Mill Road by Kevin Smith
Shanghai by John Wetherell
Highly Recommended:
Angels by Catherine Sarah Lewis
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Lost Farm by David Grubb
Les Amoureux by Anne Lyken Garner
The Vision in the Sea by Pam Gidney
Photo Change by Catherine Sarah Lewis
Honourable Mention:
Nosing Towards Darkness by Julie Stuckey
Waiting for Wrecks by Christopher Heyworth
Stark Shore Pines by Julie Stuckey
In This Place by Edward Hanson
The Girl in Alicante by Eleanor Wallace
Love on an Overdraft by Anne Lyken Garner
Long listed entries:
Reunion by Brian Young
November Song by Lynne Blackwood
Bees in the Hood by David Evans
Only in Thought by Wendy Lohse
Song of Bast by Judith Page
When the Sun is Really Hot by Richard Kuhnberg
Sweet Wood and Apple Pie by Eilidh Thomas
A Green Woodpecker by Kenneth Steven
Being A Mother by Sheila P Carroll
Healing by Hanorah Saliba
Brother by John Lavan
Gran by Linda Howitt
The Lost Village by Mary Ernest
George McClatchy by Joan Michelson
2011 - Tumours by Alana Gilchrist
The Oak by Mary Ibeh
Pagoda Bells by Veda Kahn
The Wound That Never Heals by Mark Kirkbride
Suicide is Easy by Peter T Barrett
Derek by Natalie Hayden
Unsung Ulysses by Glyn Roberts
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