adjudicators:
James Harpur, Carole Baldock, Kevin Bailey
(winners, commended and listed below)

Report  by  James Harpur

The theme of Mediterranean was right up my street. As one who had studied Classics in the distant past, who had lived on the island of Crete for a year, who has visited Italy, Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey and many Greek islands – I loved the warmth and light of the Aegean, the Adriatic and the sunny harbours of the Mediterranean world which many of the poems exuded. The Romans called the Med ‘nostrum mare’, ‘our sea’, and believed that it connected, not separated, the cities on its coastlines. That of course is what poetry tries to do, building bridges between different peoples, reminding us that we are, below our bustling egos, united at the deepest levels.

But of course, the theme was only a suggested one. As well as poems about vineyards, Odysseus, islands, and other aspects of Med life, culture and myth, I enjoyed verse on all sorts of diverse subjects, constantly admiring the quality of the entries.

Sifting the last thirty poems or so was a particularly painstaking and lengthy task, so little was there between them.

 t in the end I decided to award fourth prize to the delightful miniature, ‘Mario’, a carefully defined and delicate lyric about a farmer, his ploughing setting up a rhythm that tunes in with the ancient rhythms of the seasons and, indeed, history.  

For third prize I went for ‘The Kiss’, a sonnet, beautifully rendered, spoken from the point of view of Camille Claudet, the tragic French sculptor, addressing her mentor and lover Rodin. The interrogatives set up a fine tension, resolved in the earthiness of references to food at the end of the poem, before the concluding couplet adds its piquancy.

For second prize I chose ‘Century Plant’, which unfolds the life of a plant that blossoms only once in a very long while, the poem concluding with a surprising and satisfying volta – leaping to an analogous childhood memory of a swimming pool high board. It is a poem that has great depth and authority, striking imagery and fine, measured writing, and a marvellous concluding image.  

First prize went to ‘A Roman slave reflects on inevitability’. This short, irregularly lined and stanza-ed poem has the feel of something quick and spontaneous, belying the careful poetic intelligence that informs it throughout. The slave who offends Tiberius and whose world is therefore about to end raises all sorts of interesting ideas about the precariousness of fate, the abuse of power, the need to carpere diem. But more than that, the poet has captured the life-and-death tension and the minutiae of loss, with great linguistic and conceptual verve and originality, infusing the poem with much human warmth too.

So, congratulations to all four poets for their excellent work.

I should like to add that there were many fine poems that didn’t quite make the cut. When reading the poems I was constantly being charmed and jolted and impressed by the craft, the humour, the imagery.

As I have said elsewhere, when all is said and done, the only poetry competition that counts is the one with ourselves, the competition of combining the joy of the creative act with the effort of making the poem the best it can be. Poetry is a round of golf, trying to reduce its handicap, and not a game of tennis, trying to beat an opponent off the court. As Mr Eliot said: ‘For us there is only the trying, the rest is not our business.’

James Harpur, July 2010

FULL RESULTS

Poetry on the Lake Winners 2010

1^st: A Roman slave reflects on inevitability - Emma Harding, Tonbridge, Kent

2^nd: Century Plant - Pat Borthwick, Kirby, Yorkshire

3^rd: The Kiss - Vivienne Tregenza, Penzance, Cornwall

4^th: Mario - Caroline Maldonado, London

Short poems

1^st:, Archetypes - Lucius Redman,

2^nd:, A Zoo in Tunisia - Graham Burchell, Dawlish, Devon

3^rd:She never liked the name - Richard W. Halperin, Paris

Formal poems

1^st - An Ex Pat's Mediterranean Retirement Diary  & The Hospice at Cannes - Don Nixon, Albrighton

2^nd - Etna - Paul Groves, Monmouth

3^rd - The Drawn Curtain - Barry Tempest, Dorchester

Silver Wyvern

(in no particular order)

There are no ugly matadors - Emma Harding, Tonbridge, Kent

Waiting to hear the Nightingale - Pat Borthwick, Kirby, Yorks

 Jardin, Cote d’Azur - William Oxley, Brixham, Devon

Working things out with the wife - Lucius Redman

 Love is Not - Sharon Black, St André de Valborgne, France

A Kiss Goodnight - Williams Lyons, Rathmines, Ireland

On the road to Santiago - Maurice Franceschi, Edinburgh

 Snail Male - Jonathan Hope, Bath

Zurbarán’s St Francis - A.C. Clarke, Glasgow

He compares the blue of his beloved’s eyes - Andrew Staniland, London

Ulysses’ Last Voyage - Barry Tempest, Dorchester

The Clearances - Elisabeth Rowe, Yelverton, Devon

Our Mediterranean & the Story of Ulysses - Daphne Gloag, London

Imago Mundi - Stephanie Green, Edinburgh

The Local Gods - Claudine Toutoungi, Cambridge

Visiting - Patrick Osada,, Warfield, Berkshire

Formal poems Commended

The Kiss - Vivienne Tregenza, Penzance, Cornwall
Varnished Truth - Terence Moore

Greek Island Encounter with Psychodrama - Anne Stewart
Opening Time – Michael Woods 

Dark - Patrick Osada, Warfield
Old Woman Cooking Eggs - A.C. Clarke, Glasgow
February 29th. - Polly Walshe, Oxford

Short poems

(n.b. Carole Baldock, editor of Orbis literary journal, invites those commended or listed in this category to send in work for Orbis)

Commended

August evening - Julia Deakin

Ground Beetles - Wayne Price

Mediterranean - Chris Considine, richmond, Yorks

Beach head - Seamus Harrington

Strand - Sharon Black, St André de Valborgne, France

Treasure Island - Brian Clark 

With Calypso - Helen Pletts,

Morning - Victoria Field, Falmouth, Cornwall

Short poems also listed

Carmen & Pasquale - Donna Pucciani, Illinois, USA

Dancing in the yard at Eden - John Stokes

Figures in a landscape - Lydia Macpherson

One morning, like daisies  Andrew Robinson, Truro, Cornwall

The Sculpture - Daniel Healey, Ely, Cambs

Dad - Carole Bromley  

Sepia - Sharon Black, St André de Valborgne, France 

Back - Wayne Price,  

Motorway Services - Polly Walshe, Oxford

Congratulations to all  these poets. We hope to hear you read your poems at the 10^th Celebration on LakeOrta, 1-3 October. If your name is not on the list, take heart! The adjudicators had a hard time making final decisions, many poems were of a very high standard and choices had to be made.

All poets who entered will be welcome at the Celebration and have a chance to read a poem.

In addition, we may print in due course an anthology of strictly ‘Mediterranean’ themed poems, so although your poem may not be listed here, we may ask to print it. If so, we will contact you later for permission.

Thanks for supporting Poetry on the Lake.

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 The  Awards will be presented by
H.M. Consul General Dr Laurence Bristow-Smith

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