Swale Life Poetry Competition January 2013, Judge’s Report and Results

Judges Report by Derek Adams.

 

It is a daunting task being faced with a massive pile of poems knowing that you have to pick a few winning poems out of them. In the end of course they pick you.

After reading through all the poems the first time there is a small percentage that can be easily discarded because the poets have not proofread the copy that was sent off, typos, uncorrected spelling mistakes or worse perhaps incorrect ‘spell-check’ corrections that have slipped in! A second read-through weeds those that look like someone’s first attempt at poetry, heartfelt but not a poem. Then there are the poems written by someone who has not read any poems written since the 19^th Century, who write lines in Yoda speak ‘to make rhymes at the end of the line sit’.

By now you have 50% to 70% left of competent, crafted, creative writing. I read these with an increasingly critical eye, looking for: clichés, unneeded adjectives, obvious or over-explained endings, nice poem but so what? It doesn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know. Eventually I ended up with a baker’s dozen of good poems, crafted, honed, not a word wasted, all separated from each other by less than a cigarette paper’s width. Then personal bias starts slipping in, here is a good poem and I like it and here is another good poem and I like it, but for some reason you can’t quite put your finger on, one sings to you in a way the other doesn’t.

When I got down to the top five, it is a bit like trying to say which of my children I prefer! But as a judge it was my job to choose, so here is my final choice and why.

 

First prize: Puppy Love, this is a dark poem, it starts dark and builds. You can’t call it a slow burn because it is pretty black all the way through, but nothing prepared me for the last two chilling lines. I have now read this poem perhaps twenty or more times and it still makes the goosebumps rise. Apart from that the lines are perfectly judged (note to self, I must make my line endings as tight as this). Each stanza does its job in creating its own little vignette and still moving the whole poem on.

 

Second prize: Deep Beneath the Waves, is a dream of a dream poem, with pin sharp surreal images. Domesticity is distant and dreaming, but close are dangerous metaphors that rise from the ocean of the subconscious.

 

Third prize: Nailbow, a poem in the shape of a bow, was a bit of a creeper. I liked it on first reading but it felt a bit odd. The more times I read the poem the more it stood out and I realised that what I had at first found odd was part of its charm. The poem has a good rhyme scheme which is kept consistent without feeling forced. A wealth of intricate detail about the bow’s construction makes everything sound plausible and allows you to accept the fantastic elements.

 

Highly Commended

Ties That Bind, is the sad story of a mother who attempted suicide four times and is re-reading her suicide notes in her old age, looking back at ‘…yesterday’s sorrow/ like it’s a mouse turd/ found under the sink.’ This poem is spare with not a wasted word and brutally touching.

 

The Swans, a novel twist on an idea from a familiar fairy tale, engaging and beautifully told.

 

THE RESULTS

 

First Prize

Al McClimens - Puppy Love

Second Prize

 

Madeline Parsons - Deep Beneath the Waves

 

Third Prize

 

Jim Sitch – Nailbow

 

Highly Commended

 

Judith Neale – Ties that Bind

Keith Shaw – The Swans