Results of the Stepping Stones Nigeria Poetry Competition 2011

This competition on the theme of Childhood was judged by Susanna Roxman.

 

First Prize: ‘Little Girl's Antistrophe at 27 Rue de Fleures’ by Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé (Singapore)

Second Prize: ‘Everything is Indestructible’ by W.F.Lantry (U.S.A)

Third Prize: ‘There Will Come a Time My Love’ by Paige Bevans (Canada)

Highly commended poems

 

‘First Memories’ by Anne Ballard (U.K)

‘So you're getting married’ by Copland Smith (U.K)

Judge’s report

There were many good pieces to choose from; however, I felt that quite a few of them are not really finished. The poems are in most cases good (in so far as they are good) on the strength of details and perhaps individual lines, rather than as wholes. This does not hold true for the three winners, or the two Highly commended poems. These five texts are all of them thoroughly "worked out". But in most of the other poems, I can only admire certain images, lines, or stanzas.

I also found rather too many prose-like poems, with few if any lyrical qualities -- texts which, I believe, would have worked better as prose. Sometimes the rhythm suffers in these cases.

Comments on the winning and highly commended poems:

1st Prize poem:

The poet takes the reader on a fantastic, original, totally confident ride through Gertrude Stein's childhood (and also her later life). The poem is modernist in style, as befits a homage to the High Priestess of literary modernism. The imagery is startling and feels fresh.

2nd Prize poem:

A really good poem in its slightly odd way. (This is meant as a compliment.) There is a feeling here that everything hangs together: childhood, adulthood, the past, the present, the seasons, animals, humans. The child is the wise person here, and the adults do well to listen to him. The father realizes this in the last stanza. A Romantic touch -- the child representing wisdom, as well as innocence.

3rd Prize poem:

Here a parent, or at least a kind adult, addresses, with tenderness and wisdom, a child. I like especially the emphasis on being oneself.

Highly commended poems

"First memories". Matter of fact but full of affection. No unnecessary asides or explanations.

"so you're getting married". Tenderness here, too; in this case, what seems to be a parent is addressing a now adult child, at the same time remembering him/her in childhood, many years previously. A strong sense of impending change, but also an equally powerful sense of continuity -- that nothing really changes. The seasons may come and go, but it's the same park as before, and the same love between parent and child. "In those days trees were especially tall." is a marvellous line. It doesn't seem to refer only to the obvious fact that the child has grown up, and is now therefore taller. Also some lost sense of wonder (as in Wordsworth) may be implied.

It's been a pleasure reading and judging this poetry competition.

 

Susanna Roxman