Winners 2007
To read the winning entries from our first competition just click on the links below and scroll down to view judges' comments.
The 2007 Competition
1st Prize - Concrete by Gavin Price*
2nd Prize - My Body is Old Porridge by Eloise Williams
3rd Prize - space by Amanda Weeks
*Disclaimer: It should be mentioned that some of the content of 2007's winning poem may offend some readers.
Photograph by Andrew Davies
Specially Commended:
4th
Her hairs not short by Gavin Price
5th
Sunday afternoon on Barry Island by Nigel Humphreys
6th Solar Plexus by Jane Fox
7th Flights of Fancy by Richard Garman
8th In 1968... by John Gallas
9th
Balancing Mixed Vegetables On A Motorway Bridge by Clive
Gilson
10th
Fragments of Cardiff by Kate Scarratt
11th
On Eric Gill - typophile etc. by Emily Hinshelwood
12th To Orpheus@lyre.com by Kate Noakes
13th Urban Tales by Phil Knight
14th
Swansea Bay Promenade by Isobel Norris
15th Bags by Roger Barnett
16th What I am by Carrie-Ann Fry
17th Inside Out by Anthony Keating
18th Connecting by Leah Armstead
19th Extinction by Cerys Jones
20th
The Size Zero Debate by Emma Catherine Sullivan
Special mention:
Bus Ride by Josiah Rowlands (aged 6)
A prize giving evening was held in the main library in Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, South Wales on Wednesday 15th August, 2007.
Photograph by
Andrew Davies
The winning poems will be published in the Welsh Academi's Literary Magazine A470 as well as on their website. We have also informed the local and national press.
Judges' comment:
Concrete, by Gavin Price
An excellent poem. Filled with the sound, rhythms, and musical
qualities of language. Alliteration, and assonance, pushing each
line along relentlessly. The mind is drawn onwards, and onwards,
towards meaning, towards an end; each point picked up and
qualified by a clause or phrase, then thrown down to be picked
up again later; the language creating a speed and urgency, as we
move at times beyond meaning, and a refusal to let this
jaggedness slow us down. There is no gap between his words and
the world. Poetic utterance at it's very best, and a very worthy
competition winner. From doodlebugs, to ebay, to Buddha..."War
makes beasts of us all". Poetry will only survive as a relevant
art form if voices like Gavin Price are heard more often.
Photograph by
Andrew Davies
My Body Is Old Porridge, by Eloise Williams
Another excellent poem, finely observed and executed. A female
voice speaks with candour about the changes and bodily
experiences of the aging process. Making use of the subtle
effects of sound, which contrast wonderfully with the matter of
fact, frankness, and sometimes harsh way the poet addresses the
reader, and herself. "On honest reflection in the mirror". Yet
there is humour in this self-portrait, "Arse. A moon with
craters. Men don't want to land", and all the complexities of
emotion are addressed, "Of the inside out. Rockets. Shooting,
steaming, simmering, exploding". This poem by Eloise Williams
would win many competitions. Poem as creative art. Another poet
whose voice needs to be heard.
space, by Amanda Weeks
Again, an excellent example of how poetry should be written in
the twenty-first century. There is no pretension, both language
and subject matter speak directly to the reader. The speaker
faces the pain of miscarriage, "He left a space. Never knew he
was a "he" until the post mortem. The little life. I never saw
his face." Loss. Mourning. Pain. Self-doubt. Difficult subjects.
Nothing is dodged or ducked. Are all tackled head on. "He left
despair. A freak with bad insides. A child I could not bare."
The use of rhythm and the subtleties of rhyme are expertly
crafted. Amanda Weeks is another poet who has a finely tuned ear
for the aural patterning of language. Honest, open, and deeply
moving, a poem which thoroughly deserves it's place among the
competition winners. More please.
John Evans, August, 2007
See also our links page for details of poetry websites in
Wales and beyond.
