Judge’s report
With over 120 entries to choose from, it was a challenging task to narrow the selection down to three winning poems and ten highly commended ones. Philip Larkin once wrote – I’m paraphrasing slightly – that writing poems should first and foremost be a pleasure and so should reading them! I’m happy to say that I’ve enjoyed reading these entries and it seems to me that most of them were poems that needed to be written, that is, poems that came from the heart rather than written as exercises or – perish the thought – as attempts to win a prize. I chose “Illness” for the first prize because it strikes me as both finely crafted and natural at the same time, as well as being beautifully understated, a clear demonstration of the principle that less is often more. The final line (“I have become used to not being seen”) has the same deceptively matter-of-fact quality as the final line in Robert Lowell’s great poem “Eye and Tooth”: “I am tired. Everyone’s tired of my turmoil.”
I think other poems could have benefited from this kind of clarity, as well as occasional pruning. Speaking of pruning, the pastoral muse was certainly more in evidence than any urban one, and I awarded second prize to “Autumnal Anniversary” as the strongest poem in this field (no pun intended), which wore its Wordsworthian mantle lightly and again showed an awareness of form, allowing the poem to find its own rhythm. Third prize went to “Death Before Life”, a moving poem about the loss of a baby that has echoes of Hardy in its use of rhyme but is recognisably a contemporary voice. Another example of something simply expressed, with what’s left unsaid having as much impact as the words used (what Tony Harrison has referred to as “the silence round all poetry”).
The ten highly commended poems each had a quality that singled it out from its rivals among the many entries I read through as diligently as possible, trying not to allow my own prejudices to lead me to exclude unfairly something that might not be to my taste but that deserved to be recognised for its own merits. But as I wrote at the beginning of this report, I enjoyed reading all the poems submitted for this competition – and I celebrate the fact that in hard times the poetic muse has not abandoned us just yet.
Philip Lyons October 2010
Illness
I do not recognise myself in the mirror-
I see loneliness which has followed me
from hospital and found me in my room.
When I came home you had painted
these walls, choosing the colour pink
from flowers woven into my Persian rug.
bringing in something from the outside. Windows
on the ward were not allowed to be fully opened.
I have become used to not being seen.
© Beverley Ferguson – 1st Prize
On winning 1st prize:
Wow! Absolutely delighted. A much needed boost for my self-confidence. Recognition for determination and perseverance and my passion for words, language, and a belief in communicating simply and clearly. Recognition for the support I have had.
I am spending my winnings on buying a lap top.
Autumnal Anniversary (A celebration of leaves)
At autumn-time,
the roses remembered your visit and re-blossomed.
Their scents swirled around the garden door;
their colours clung on like the kisses
I cast out above the valley floor
towards the sunset, hoping you’d
catch them as you awakened
half a globe away.
The petals:
fell, fashioning themselves as scarlet pools, rivering on,
swelling the restless, rust edges of leaf lakes.
At your homecoming, we ran exposed,
splash-scattering the blushing puddles
across a flood plain of full-flushed autumn;
laughing, pledging confettied promises
that we have, since, kept.
© Mike Lee – 2nd Prize
On winning 2nd Prize:
“I am delighted to receive this acknowledgement of my latent talent. Thank you.”
DEATH BEFORE LIFE
Blood at a birth.
Blood at a death:
It was both.
But all for the best, all for the best.
‘Don’t lift, don’t stretch,
Don’t run, don’t jump,
Don’t move:
Keep still and rest, keep still and rest.’
Five months you lived,
hanging on
by a thread.
But only a guest, a short term guest.
‘It’s a girl’, they said
‘and beautiful.
Nothing wrong.’
But dead on my breast, dead on my breast.
© Jackie Hinden – 3rd Prize
Background information on our winners:
Beverley Ferguson is a founder member of the Centre for Whole Health in Bristol, and a founder member of the charity Community Arts Therapies, based in Bath.
She trained in Dance, Drama, and English at Dartington College of Arts in Devon, qualifying as a teacher. During the 1980s she had a career in the Caring Professions. Beverley’s passion for movement led her to learn Tai Chi Chuan, which she taught in Bath for eight years. An evolving interest in the relationship between Body, Mind and Spirit/Heart, was developed by training and practising as a psychotherapist for ten years.
Beverley says “I have had a decade of illness. My love of writing, especially poetry, continues to support my recovery”.
Mike Lee is a former academic who; in retirement, has returned to his creative writing
rather than creating educational texts.
Mike says: I remember writing stories and poetry from an early age. I was encouraged in this interest by parents and at school. But my real interest in literature and writing poetry came about while training to be teacher. I taught English in West Africa and went on to write and co-write several English Language courses for primary and secondary schools. I completed my doctorate in Sociolinguistics in 1985.
Jackie Hinden’s published works include a number of short stories , many lyrics set to music, and the libretto of a children’s operetta. She also won the Radio Sussex award for a radio play, subsequently broadcast. She lives in Brighton, and for many years taught Creative Writing for the Brighton Adult Education department.
At the present time she is concentrating on her poetry, and has had several poems published by United Press and Forward Press. She has also won several competitions, including second prize in the prestigious Keats/Shelley competition and is very happy to add this Poetry Space prize to the list.
Full list of winning poems 2010
First prize
Illness – Beverley Ferguson
Second prize
Autumnal Anniversary – Mike Lee
Third prize
Death Before Life – Jackie Hinden
Highly commended
Mother’s last laugh- Audrey Arden Jones
The Ancient Lark- Joe Jordan
Watching the butcher cut meat in Karachi – Rona Laycock
Rage – Beverley Ferguson
Public Transport – Deborah Harvey
The Mary Block – Deborah Harvey
Walkies- Susan Latimer
Medicine for the Heart – Sue Ashby
Bright Town – Tamarisk Bowles
