2017 Short Poem Competition
1st Prize: Gabriel Griffin
Hermes
After the sculpture ‘Hermes and the Infant Dionysus’
By Praxiteles, (4th C .BC), Museum of Olympia.
Olympia, West Ken. He comes winged,
a young man, tall and strong and blond
in orange overalls; the opal skin, the marbled ease
of Hermes resting with the child
on his journey to the nymphs.
My son bloodless, cradled, rocked
in orange arms. Wine’s stink.
Then sirens, dense woods of traffic parting,
my praying for his wings.
At last, the blessed, crowding nymphs.
2nd Prize: Barbara Hickson
From the Rocks at Staffa
as if this weren't enough
basalt pillars rearing from the sea
a sliding sun spreading jigsaw light on the ocean's current
I can see through marbled depths to the intimate quiet of stones
and dreaming lion's mane jellyfish in diaphanous dresses
pulsing gently
propelled by rust-coloured underskirts
fine ribbons trailing
suspended light-filled
composed of almost nothing
Comments from the judge, Michael Symmons Roberts
I was very struck by the measured, sculpted structure of this poem at the beginning, and the way it shivers by the end into those beautifully described jellyfish ‘composed of almost nothing.’
3rd Prize: Will Atkins
Redmire Falls (North Yorkshire)
‘Waterfall’ sounds too soft, too southern,
Some trivial riffle, trickling through the dell;
‘Force’ says it better, says it all –
A tea-stained torrent, boiling off the fell.
Hard Water; mesmeric, treacling, foaming,
Head like Theakston’s Old Peculier,
Sweeping all away – save for a few
Brave salmon, rising up and leaping
Like wild hopes, counter to the currents
Throwing reflexive curves against the spray.
Comments from the judge, Michael Symmons Roberts
A poem of northern pride built on the word ‘Force’ and the ‘tea-stained torrent’ it evokes. Tea and Theakston’s, salmon and ‘hard water’ – ten lines of pure Yorkshire.
Highly Commended
Portrait of My Father as a Coracle by Ama Bolton
The Big Freeze and My Father by John Prior
Some of the Things I found after my Father had Died by Neil Ferguson
Inhabited by Louise Greig
Comments from the judge, Michael Symmons Roberts
This one offers such a rich portrait, more than filling the tight frame it sets itself. Playful, exuberant and - like all the best short poems - fully realised in its ten lines. It was in my top few ‘short poem’ entries from the first time I read it.