IX International Poetry competition AWARDS sponsored by ALESSI closing 15th May 2009 Three categories: Silver Wyvern - Formal verse - Short poems Judges: Carol Ann Duffy (Silver Wyvern), John Whitworth (Formal), Kevin Bailey (Short) The adjudicators will read ALL the poems, there will be no sifting. PRIZES: enough of gloom and doom, recession and depression - Poetry on the Lake is defying the present situation and increasing the cash prizes : £400 to the Silver Wyvern winner and £100 to each of three runners up and to Formal and Short poems prize winners. cash prizes may be given in sterling or in euros. Guidelines: Silver Wyvern : theme 'Elemental' ,interpret as wished, max. 60 lines Formal verse: open theme, max. 40 lines. Short poems: open theme, max. 10 linesNew: Camelia prize sponsored by the boutique in Piazza Ragazzoni "Per te da Orta" No entry form required. Send (check postal rates for Italy!) 2 copies of each poem ( poems should be unpublished and never won a previous prize), mark category top right; one copy anonymous, other with contact details and, possibly, email address. Fee: first poem £5; then £4; Euro/dollars: 10 for 1 or 2 poems ;then 5 per poem.
UK/Irish/Italian cheques or postal orders payable to G.Griffin-Hall and CROSSED (Italian marked Non trasferibile).
Other countries: cash – notes only, safer wrapped in metallic foil. Use Pritt or similar to stick down envelope, easy self-adhesive envelopes are also easy to open en route! The same poem may be entered in two or more categories but will count each time as a separate entry.
Results email or send 2 E (50p UK, or €0,65 Italian) loose stamps or 2 IRCs. Possible publication with Italian translation facing for selected poems (we try to contact all authors first for permission although entry to the competition implies automatically permission to publish). Copyright remains with the author. Results June/July.
SEND TO: Poetry onthe Lake, Isola San Giulio, 28016 Orta NO, Italy. Enquiries email: poetryonthelake(at)yahoo.co.uk
VIII INTERNATIONAL POETRY COMPETITION 2008 RESULTS Silver Wyvern judged by Jo Shapcott Judge's report The competition entries for Poetry on the Lake spilled out of the parcel in a bright, shimmering pile. All shades of reds, blues, greens and yellows were there; a few greys and blacks; some poems infused with whole rainbows. For the theme of the competition was colour and the entrants responded with the full palette. Gradually, the winners emerged: in fourth place‘Tangled up in Blue’ with its wonderfully understated sensuality; third, ‘Colouring In’ whooshing us back into the language and concerns of childhood; second, ‘Red Rose’ a poem which makes its narrative glow and spit above the darker emotional undertow; and in first place ‘Slave Ship’, a beautifully made and considered poem, and at the same time frighteningly charged, powerfully revealing. A fine set of commended poems make worthy runners-up, and the whole group is a wonderful read, a small anthology of glowing poems. Prize-winners 1. Slave Ship - Caroline Carver, Flushing, Cornwall
2. Red Rose - Charles Evans, London
3. Colouring In - Peter Wyton, Gloucester
4. Tangled up in blue - E.C. O’Leary, Glasgow, Scotland
Commendations (in random order)
What my heart is like - Victoria Field, Falmouth, Cornwall
Taxonomy of Famine Diseases - Roger Elkin, Stoke-on-Trent
Myth in Monocolour - Sue Kindon, Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria
Pietra Dura - Chris Considine, Richmond, Yorkshire
Chambre d'Amour - Susi Clare, Travedona Monate (VA) That Very Yellow Knight - Gillian Nicholson, London
one pink heart - Mario Petrucci, Enfield
Flame - Emma Harding, Tonbridge, Kent
The Tile Maker - Clare Crossman, Royston, Hertfordshire
In the Dark - Paul Mcloughlin, Hounslow, Middlesex Short Poems, report by Penelope Shuttle Judging the competition was both exhilarating and problematical, because the standard of entries was extremely high. Perhaps having that ten line limit enabled the poets to find creative solutions to working within those limits, so there was no room to be over-explanatory or to lay on the adjectives with a trowel! Because of the overall high standard I had to make some hard choices. But eventually I pared the entries down to a shortlist, and then put it to one side for a while, returning with fresh eyes. On returning to read the shortlisted poems the winners stepped forward, as did the highly-commended poems. It has been a real privilege reading these poems. My thanks to everyone and many congratulations all round! Prize Winner Tubes - Chris Preddle Holmfirth Runners Up Stone - Tessa West, Glemsford, Sudbury Name Jerm Curtin, Lugo, Spain Steel -Cath Nichols, Warrington, Cheshire Commendations (in random order) St Valentine's Day at the Seuss Glacier - Dilys Wood, London Blue -Elisabeth Rowe, Yelverton, Devon A conversation in the crypt of the chapel of St. Iffy, patron saint of the unvisited - David King, Salisbury Niagara -Victoria Field Merman - Sarah McGarry The Body - Kass Boucher, Basingstoke, Hampshire Home, where a thousand books wait under my bed - Mavis Howard, Abingdon, Oxfordshire As if Water Can Hold Light - Denise MvSheehy, Totnes Sub Lingual - June English,Ripple, Kent Brink - Maggie Sawkins, Southsea, Hampshire Environmental - June English, Ripple, Kent Woken by Rain - Wayne Price, Aberdeen, Scotland That Clio - Carole Bromley, York Formal Verse Report by Michael Swan The beginning was easy. I discarded those poems which had no detectable formal element at all, or which were ‘formal’ only in a window-dressing sense: free verse doesn’t acquire poetic form because it’s broken into stanzas, rhymes twice, or is centred prettily on the page. That left the more difficult but enjoyable task of reading, rereading and assessing eighty-odd genuinely formal poems. There were villanelles (easy to write, hard to write well), sestinas (hard to write, very hard to write well), sonnets, ottava rima, rondeaux redoublés, ballades, and poems with less conventional formal frameworks. After eliminating some because they simply weren’t very good, and others because of the odd weakness of form or content, I was left with a longish shortlist of thirty or so really good poems. From these, two finally emerged that I felt were outstanding, and two others that ran them close. First prize: ‘Christingle’ by Vivienne Treganza (Penzance). The villanelle form is handled expertly, with considerable rhythmic subtlety, and underpins perfectly the multiple imagery: church, children and ghosts breathing together; scent, sound and light merging. It could have been sentimental, but isn’t at all. A beautiful and touching poem. Second prize: ‘Ellen Terry Becomes Lady Macbeth’ by Margaret Eddershaw (Nafplion, Greece). This is a quite cerebral poem, thoughtfully and interestingly following the transformation of the actress into her character, while cleverly exploiting the sestina’s built-in repetitions to cut backwards and forwards between the dressing-room preparations and the content of the play. A real tour de force. Commendations: ‘You are a man of islands and the sea’ by Chris Considine (Richmond, N. Yorks), a beautifully realised and moving sonnet; and ‘Fuckin Love’ by Charles Evans (London), an engaging and strikingly original poem written in the voice of a biker. Short-listed Walking Home – Margaret Wilmot, Selmeston, East Sussex Blissfully Barefoot– Sarah Doyle, London King Socrates – Chris Preddle, Holmfirth The Planting - Julie-ann Rowell, Totnes, Devon The Seafarer's Return - Oz Hardwick, York Lamorna's Winter Solstice – Vivienne Tregenza , Penzance The Undertaker's Lament – Elisabeth Rowe, Yelverton, Devon The Builders - A.C. Clarke, Glasgow, Scotland Evolution at the Natural History Museum – A.C.Clarke, Glasgow, Scotland | 
