RESULTS 2007
Winning and selected poems are published in the anthology Wild, obtainable from Poetry on the Lake at the price £7 + £2.50 p/p.
Silver Wyvern
adjudicator : John Hartley Williams
SILVER WYVERN: Sudden Jazz after Interesting Paperback - Christopher North, Alicante (Spain)
2nd PRIZE : Paris - Mario Petrucci, Enfield (UK)
3rd PRIZE : Wild Child - Marcus Smith, San Francisco (USA
4th PRIZE: Drawing Blood - Roger Elkin, Stoke-on-Trent (UK)
HIGHLY COMMENDED
5th : Wilderness Looms - Elisabeth Rowe, Devon (UK)
6th: Hangover Hotel - Rob Mackenzie, Edinburgh (Scotland)
7th: Blod and Goronwy in Cornwall - Zeeba Ansari, Truro (UK)
COMMENDED/SHORTLISTED
8th : We Move to Railway Street - Kaye Lee, London
9th: Dragonfly Dogfight - Peter Wyton, Gloucester (UK)
10th : Pantoum of a Wild Retirement - Don Nixon, Albrighton UK)
11th : Playing Religious Table-Tennis with Robert - James Armstrong, Eastbourne (UK)
12th : St Davids - Victoria Field, Falmouth (UK)
13th: Flying High - Susi Clare, Travedona Monate (Italy)
14th : Unnatural selection - Susie Gibson, Amesbury (UK)
15th : Bull Rider - Thelma Laycock, Leeds (UK)
16th : Crow – Jane Lovell,Kenilworth (UK)
17th: Conversation with William - Christopher North, Alicante (Spain)
18th : Now and Now again – Christopher North, Alicante
19th: The Loons on Halls Lake - Anne Ballard, London
20th: Challenge - Zeeba Ansari, Truro (UK)
Number of entries: Silver Wyvern 300 + - ; Bill Winter 120 + - ; Formal 90 + -
BILL WINTER 2007 RESULTS adjudicated by Kevin Bailey
WINNER: Chris Considine, Richmond, Yorkshire Coming Home
HIGHLY COMMENDED:
Kate Noakes, Caversham, Reading Salamander Wife
Daniel Healy , Cambridge Thirst
COMMENDED
Steve Allen, Milton Keynes Tamarind
Barry Tempest, Dorchester Marabou Barracks
John Godfrey , Hitchin, Herts Mercator Projection
Lynne Rees, Offham, Kent haiku
Jerm Curtin, Lugo, Spain Milk
Judge’s report: I found a number of the contest poems pretty good – standard generally higher than last year. Difficult to select a ‘winner’ but after much scratching of vitals have come up with the following, though first three of equal merit really. All these eight are up to HQ inclusion standard.
KEVIN BAILEY
Results : FORMAL CATEGORY adjudicated by Gary Bills
WINNER.
Elsa Corbluth, Rodden, Dorset: Beach Sculpture. "Original, atavistic, human and moving".
HIGHLY COMMENDED.
Helen L. Bromley, Sedbergh, Cumbria: The Children of Lot. "Superbly crafted and imaginative".
Alessio Zanelli, Cremona, Italy : Dreamskimmer. "Intriguing, and a fine sense of rhythm".
COMMENDED.
Anne Ballard, London : Apology from a reluctant tortoise.
Llyn Evans, Penzance, Cornwall : Troubadour.
Jacqueline Gabbitas, London : Maxwell's Otter.
Maggie Norton, Ulverston, Cumbria : Stealing Tixall Wide from the Staffs and Worcester Canal.
Judge's report: The number of villanelles submitted was remarkable, as was the number of pantoums and sestinas, to a lesser extent. Only one villanelle made it into the shortlist, - no pantoum and no sestina. Why so? Considering the villanelle as a form, for instance, I think it only really works when all the lines are very suitable or very strong. Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle.." remains, I think, the only great villanelle in English. Otherwise, the repetition can expose the weakness of an idea, in a sustained form, - in a way that a basic refrain does not, so long as it is well chosen. In other words, the danger of the villanelle form is that it can bore the reader or the listener and place faux significance, through repetition, on lines that do not deserve the repeating. The shortlisted villanelle, "Apology from a Reluctant Tortoise" escapes this pit-fall because the weariness of the physical hurt that is described actually matches the form, - the repetition is indicative of struggle to get about. On top of this, the language is well chosen and there is some striking imagery too. A well deserved commended. Elsewhere, I was looking for confident formal lines with that instinctive grasp of the language which Robert Frost called "the sound of sense". If rhyme was used, - and I raised no objection to either full or half-rhyme, I wanted it to be unobtrusive, not slotted in. Most important, I found myself shunning any rhyme that attemped to rhyme on the "wrong" syllable, or where the rhythm of the first line, - the one setting up the rhyme, did not echo the rhythm of the second, - the one where the rhyme should be revealed. I was looking for contemporary language and watchful for any that lapsed into archaic language or syntax. But, this said, the winning poem - the Shakespearean sonnet, "Beach Sculpture", contains what may be termed Miltonic inversions in some of the syntax. I forgave this, not least because there are some thunderously fine lines of true poetry, and also because there is a "biblical" feel to the whole of of the poem. I had to judge the poem contextually, - as a whole, - and taken as a whole, it is the clear winner. GARY BILLS
Autumn awards and celebration 12th-14th October 2007
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