Fish

by M. V. WILLIAMS

 

These are the half-dead fish,

stargazy mouths agape,

all washed up in white wrappings;

their stiff and soundless jaws are moving,

flashing their hazardous teeth.

 

They thrash sometimes, in extremis.

 

These fish have swallowed hooks

that tear at their gills' lining.

Their thin, white, what-were-hands,

are useless fins now, clutching the soil of sheets,

beached on the beige lino.

 

Drip-fed and drain-emptied, there they lie,

filletted on the gurney's slab, under a bright light;

under a notice saying: 'Nil By Mouth' and

'Do Not Resuscitate.'

 

These poor fish once had names,

mouths filled with love and wonder,

swam nobly with the stars,

lest we forget.

Lest we forget.

 

 

‘Fish’ won the first prize in The Psychiatry Research Trust Poetry Competition 2012.

 

About the poet

 

Mary Valentine Williams has worked in Mental Health and allied fields most of her life, having failed to keep order as a teacher and bored to tears by banking, her first two career choices. Always a scribbler, Mary gained a late MA in Creative Writing at Edge Hill and was then commissioned to write two self-help books for Sheldon (SPCK).  This helped her to decide to pursue writing as a career, but in filling in the gaps she has also been a foster parent, market trader and craft worker. Her last proper job was as a University staff counsellor.

Published in many poetry anthologies and winner of several prizes last year, Mary keeps tabs on the Liverpool poets she met while on her MA, and helps run a writers’ and poets’ group in her home town. She is a member of the Keele Poets’ Group at Silverdale. When not at her computer or kitchen sink, she can be found on her allotment or in the local flea market. Married with four adult sons, she and her husband now live in Shropshire in an inconvenient cottage full of paintings by friends and family members, with a well under the living room floor, and try valiantly to stop the garden getting into the house.

Mary has also published three novels, numerous short stories in the ‘dark fiction’ genre, erotica and memoirs. She also writes under her middle name of Valentine Williams.

Gold / Illusion / The Poltergeist / Massacre in Houla / Fish

 

Results and Judge’s Report, Swale Life Poetry Competition (January 2012)

 

A varied and interesting selection as always, with many poems on the themes of relationships, the natural world, journeys and quests of all kinds.

 

I had no problem selecting the winning three poems or the Highly Commended (although both the latter were nudging hard to be included as main prize winners.) My problems were with several of the Commended poems, which could have been Highly Commended, and with a cluster of a dozen poems that, had space permitted, could easily have been chosen for the anthology. Among them are ‘Thistles’  ‘The Horse’  ‘Skull as Object’ and ‘Away in August’.

 

This was a most enjoyable task and I’m glad to have had the pleasure of reading so many fine poems.

                                   

 

1^st        MEN, THIS MORRIS DANCE – GRAHAM BURCHELL

This poem – so original – stood (or danced) out for me at the first reading. I was caught by the vigour of its opening line which continues from the title: ‘Men, this Morris Dance/ is dedicated to our butterflies – sorry.’  Who could resist that ‘sorry’?  I couldn’t. A clever, perfectly crafted, attractive poem that is deservedly the winner.

 

2^nd        NIGHT BATTLES – THRYN H.

A sure hand was at work on this poem. I enjoyed  the surrealism of its images, the technical skill but most of all the musicality of its language in lines such as these: ‘if I turned the whole lot over would the feathers/sprout from shoulders/where endless hours used to fit?/ Could I sweep the dusk from eyelids/when I stretch them, glorious, free ...’A hypnotic, compelling poem.

 

3^rd        MOUSETRAP – WF LANTRY

Ostensibly a poem about catching a mouse but there is so much more. It’s a poem about suffering, I think, suffering and existence and a reaching after peace in a precarious world. A subtle poem, moving from darkness to dawn, from noon to midnight, written with lyricism and a perfection of language. Take these lines for example: ‘I will need/benevolent new traps. At noon I drive /to look for something it will, caught, survive,/without new suffering laid on my head.’

 

HIGHLY COMMENDED:

 

WASPS – TED WALTER

A striking poem that considers the implications of destroying a wasps’ nest. I was immediately pulled in by the repeated phrase ‘And if I had?’ A poignant, thoughtful poem beautifully written.

 

CUERNCA, SPAIN – VALENTINE WILLIAMS

A simple, lyrical ‘relationship’ poem that builds on the repeated line ‘There was that night’ and uses the image of an owl in moonlight to evoke shadows, a void, loss. Lovely writing here.

                       

COMMENDED:          

 

MURCHISON – VALENTINE WILLIAMS

A lyrical journey/relationship poem that attracted me with its repetition of the place name ‘Murchison’ and the many small details that build up the picture such as ‘Cohen on the player, mournful,/and sandflies biting both our sandalled feet/along the river down to Murchison.’

 

CLAY-LADY – MARGARET WILMOT

An intriguing, visual poem that uses a device I particularly enjoy – the echoing and interweaving of words and images throughout the different sections.

 

LANDRANGER 205 – WILL DAUNT

Here the poet uses the ‘serrated trails’ and ‘contour –scars’ of a map to convey the image of a ‘last stamp-sized scrap of land’ where ‘half the country’s lost.’ Brilliantly crafted.

 

ALMOST HIBERNATING – VALERIE BRIDGE

I chose this poem for the beauty of its language – hypnotic, echoing lines such as ‘The bear must sleep. Must sleep./Back. Sleep. Softly blueberrying.’ An enchanting poem.

 

SOMEWHERE THERE USED TO BE LOVE – CLAIRE PANKHURST

An apparently straightforward narrative of an uninvited guest who realises she/he has made a mistake by turning up, counterpointed by the ‘broken’ phrase ‘and your hand curls round glass breaking.’  A clever, well handled technique that perfectly conveys the emotion behind the events and the sadness of ‘breaking.’

 

 

Mandy Pannett. 

February 2012