Saturday, 28 April 2012
Friday, 27 April 2012
THE PSYCHIATRY RESEARCH TRUST POETRY COMPETITION 2012
You are invited to enter The Psychiatry Research Trust Poetry Competition 2012 - an Excel for Charity competition organised by Eastern Light EPM International to raise funds for charity. Your poem could help fight mental illness and its effects on the society. This competition is for previously unpublished poems in English Language, on any subject, in any style up to 50 lines long (excluding title).
PRIZES: £150 (1st), £75 (2nd), £40 (3rd) and £10 x 2 (High Commendation). The winning and commended poems will be published in the Excel for Charity News Blog and in the Psychiatry Research Trust Newsletter (print).
FEES: £4 for 1 poem, £7.50 for 2 poems, £10.50 for 3 poems, £12.50 for 4 poems and £14 for 5 poems. (A third of net entry fees goes to the charity. This is for a good cause. Please enter generously.)
JUDGE: Derek Adams
HOW TO ENTER: You may enter online and pay securely by PayPal or print out an Entry Form and enter by post at http://www.easternlightepm.com/excelforcharity/psychtrust-poetry-competition/ Send your poems with Entry Form or Cover Note and applicable fees to address: Excel for Charity, Eastern Light EPM International, Unit 136, 113-115 George Lane, South Woodford, London E18 1AB, United Kingdom. Cheques/Postal Orders payable to EASTERN LIGHT EPM INTERNATIONAL
Friday, 20 April 2012
Remembering Ted Walter, the ‘Policeman Poet’.
All of us at Excel for Charity are saddened by the passing of Ted Walter, a beautiful poet who understood the spirit of our cause and always supported us.
In January 2012, Ted’s poem ‘Wasps’ was highly commended by Mandy Pannett, judge of the Swale Life International Poetry Competition organised by Excel for Charity. In her adjudication report, she had said of ‘Wasps’;
“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.”
And if we had known he was unwell, we might have called him, or we might have sent a card just to say say thank you for all the support, and big thanks for the poetry that will never pass on.
Ted grew up in Swanley, Kent with a loving family. He married artist Hazel and had two boys. He began teaching evening classes in creative writing while he was still working as a policeman in the 70s and appeared as a policeman poet on Nationwide. He has enriched and brightened many lives, both young and old, through creative writing ever since.
He overcame prostate cancer in 2006, but sadly died on Saturday 14th April as a result of chemotherapy treatment for subsequent cancer.
Ted has several collections of poetry: Kindling; Choosing Yellow, published by Yorick Books in 1986; Blue Moon, published by Willing Words in 1999 and Promptings of St Thomas published by Willing Words in 2006.
WASPS
Unlike bees, those messengers of gods
bringing honeyed wisdom,
wasps raid and sting. They live
maliciously, striking fear; their black
and yellow bodies shout beware
and like all pests are best exterminated.
So kill the bastards. Be sure to kill them all.
And if I had? This limb being mined
for pulp, best seams extracted
deep into the dark, would be just dead,
sawn off to throw away or burn.
Instead a nest, painstakingly contrived
behind the soffit of my roof,
hangs there, confined above my desk.
Engineers to and fro incessantly,
reel beyond my window, out
to the greengage tree and back, each one
adding to cells that house their young,
or feeding them with insects chewed small.
And if I had, would I have heard
their wings beating in unison?
An ardent song of a contented cat
deep into a purr, the pulse from gentle
thrums, stops, begins again then
silence. When next it starts I listen
to how many? Maybe a legion,
marshalled meticulously,
keeping the nest cool.
Ted Walter
Highly Commended Poet, Swale Life International Poetry Competition (January 2012)
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
Results and Judge’s Report, Swale Life Poetry Competition (January 2012)
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.
1st 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.
2nd 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.
3rd 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
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