swconline

LINK TO READ ENTRIES WILL BE HERE SOON.

Organiser’s Report

It was quite disheartening to see how many entrants this year failed to read the rules and whose work had to be submitted to the void due to wild interpretations of words like ‘Unpublished’ or ‘Entries in English’ or ‘No identification of the poet’.

Happily, many, many talented entries passed the first hurdle and a good number of them survived the shortlisting to end up in the hands of our talented chief judge. As usual, the International part of the competition did very well, with Germany, Canada and South Africa being represented this time and quite a few poems taking full advantage of the 40 line limit (though the number of words PER line stretched credibility in one case). Common themes this year were revisited, with the usual contingent of ‘describing a painting’, ‘messy relationship’ and ‘reminiscing about the good old days’. We did though get some unique topics like ‘weird latin phrases’, ‘describing what kittens are doing’ and ‘plastic islands in the ocean’ but all poems regardless of theme gave insight and perspective into their deep ideas and encapsulated feelings – a tough skill to get right.

We want to thank every single person who entered, it is a brave thing to enter a competition like this or sending your work anywhere. All entries had merit but alas, only some can make it to the finish line when the standard is so good.

Chief Judge’s Report – Judith Railton

I love to be suffused by the variety of poetic ways in front of me now. The fresh rhythms playing on my mind. I read them all, come back to pick a line or two , out of each , that catch my attention.  There is often a story , yet I want to be taken somewhere else, to senses, to emotions, mystery, wanting more to be revealed. I want to be surprised by a poetic phrase to make me see the world differently.  I read them all aloud, several times. I find my favourites, the ones that I feel more deeply about,  and sift the words again and again. I’ve delighted in many imaginative similes and metaphors and all your voices. Congratulations to all the poems I’ve had the pleasure of , these are my choices.

1st

Let’s Walk The Sky – Gareth Culshaw

The most poetic of all the poems. Pared down, full of powerful evocations. Sweeping from ground to stars , encompassing vivid experiences of the natural world  into  moments in a relationship , on this one night.

2nd

 On the Outskirts of Town – Julia Stothard

Using the liminal edge of life and death this poem gave a structure to weave a gradually revealed and surprising narrator in a car ride with strangers.

3rd

Wedding Dress Shopping with My Mother – Sam Szanto

Tension, pressure, claustrophobia , coercion all encompassed finely into this shopping trip.

Catherine Fenerty Humour Prize

Watching the News – Bill Lythgoe

I enjoyed first the disparity of items seen and heard on the news, paired with the minutiae of every day life of the viewer. Each rhyming couplet is punchy and highlights this truth.

Highly Commended

The heartache expressed so vividly in everyday tasks demanded of a  woman by her disabled partner. Both embattled and scarred by life. In three line verses.

Commended

The Since Demolished Me – Samuel Prince

I enjoyed the narrator , a demolished building,  who talks of the rise and fall of its history. The layout of the poem like a skyscraper.

Six Inches – Alan J Carter

The poignancy of a young man’s death from a newspaper item, exploded backwards in time,  into what drug dependency did to him. Repeated ‘Yearning   ‘ emphasises his struggle. The cheerful rhyming line ends , ‘bidding/kidding, hills/chills’ sharpen the misery . The shape of the poem, like a memorial urn.

The Find – Ceinwen E Cariad Haydon

The everyday unkindnesses of a long relationship given life by objects found and collected.

Visits to my Grandfather’s Sisters in Dre-fach Felindre – Ceinwen E Cariad Haydon

I was drawn to the comforting arms of these welcoming women to the narrator , both as a child and a solace after divorce. The three grey heron at the end as totems lifted the poem to  a magic level.

You Are Sorry – Helen Kay

Grief expressed in the gift of flowers which grow old, rot and are recycled.