Archive of Poetry Kit Competition Results

Earlier results, judges’ reports and selected winning poems from the Poetry Kit competitions.

2025 competitions

Poetry Kit International Competition 2025

Judge’s Report

This year’s competition attracted a rich and varied selection of poems, demonstrating both technical assurance and a wide emotional and imaginative range. Many entries showed a keen attention to the textures of ordinary life—light, weather, memory, objects, and the subtle shifts of human relationships—while others reached outward toward history, art, and the natural world. The standard of the shortlist was particularly high, and selecting the final winners required careful rereading and discussion.

First Prize – Rachel Chook, “Leaving”
“Leaving” is a quietly powerful poem that captures the moment of departure with remarkable restraint and emotional clarity. The poem’s strength lies in its control: the language is simple yet resonant, allowing image and rhythm to carry the emotional weight. From the opening line—“The door did not slam”—the poem establishes a tone of calm inevitability. Everyday details such as cooling cups, a chair “remembering / the shape of someone who once stayed,” and the fading light of the house create a vivid emotional landscape without ever becoming sentimental. Particularly striking is the poem’s sense of movement: the transition from interior to exterior space mirrors the speaker’s inner acceptance of loss. By the closing lines, the image of the once-shared home becoming “only a light / I could no longer reach” offers a haunting and memorable conclusion. It is a poem of quiet maturity that lingers long after reading.

Second Prize – Matine Shelk, “Silk”
“Silk” is an elegant and delicately observed meditation on morning and the gentle unfolding of time. The poem excels in its tactile imagery, transforming light into something almost physical—thread, cloth, and silk. The extended metaphor is handled with great care and consistency, giving the poem a sense of cohesion and grace. Small details—a bus sighing at the corner, pigeons lifting their “grey wings of paper,” footsteps crossing the fragile fabric of dawn—bring the waking world to life. The poem’s calm, attentive tone invites the reader to pause and inhabit the moment. Its closing image, in which the morning itself seems dressed in silk, provides a satisfying sense of completion.

Highly Commended
The Highly Commended poems offered a diverse range of styles and concerns. From the imaginative textures of “Full of Holes” to the narrative charm of “Journey of a Black Umbrella,” the shortlist included work that was inventive, thoughtful, and emotionally engaging. Other pieces explored memory, language, art, and the natural world with originality and craft. Each of these poems demonstrated qualities that made them stand out during judging.

Commended and Shortlisted Poems
The remaining shortlisted poems also deserve recognition for their strong imagery, distinctive voices, and imaginative approaches to theme and form. The judge was impressed by the breadth of subjects—from intimate personal reflections to wider cultural and philosophical explorations. Many of these poems stayed with us long after the initial reading.

Overall, this year’s submissions reflected a vibrant and thoughtful community of poets. The judge would like to thank all who entered the competition and congratulate the prize winners and shortlisted poets for their excellent work.

Poetry Kit Ekphrastic Competition for 2025

Winner

Diana Killi for Nude descending a staircase (1912)

Runner-up

SallyAnn Ling for The Boathouse

Commended Poems

Rod Whitworth for printing with fish

Mandy Pannett for SPACES ON A SUMMER’S DAY

Patrick Osada for PICTURE ON THE WALL.

Alwyn Marriage for 'Broadway Boogie-Woogie'

Roddy Scott for La Maîtresse Du Ballet

SUE HANSARD for WAR WORK.

Di Hills, for The Writer and her Maid

James Bain says

“A big thanks to all who entered. Once again, the overall standard was exceptionally high, and it was a genuine pleasure to read such a diverse and impressive array of poems. The decision regarding the winner and runner-up was by no means straightforward, but I am confident that both are thoroughly deserving of their recognition, as are all the poets whose work has been commended. My congratulations to everyone who took part and made this such a rewarding competition.” (James Bain)

Congratulations to the poets who made the final selection.

Earlier archived results

Poetry Kit International Poetry Competition 2025

1^st

Matina Riva (Los Angelas, USA) for her ppoem The Things We Carry With Us

2^nd

Sarah Becket (Trinadad) for her poem Stardust

Commended Poets

David Edwards Hulme, (Stockport,UK) for the poem

A GLOVE-MAKER’S LETTER IN A CHRISTMAS GIFT TO HIS SON, WIL.

Sue Hansard (Tamworth, UK) for the poem

STONE-WALLER

Georgia May (Portsmouth, UK) for the poem

with love from chicago

Christian Donovan (Carmarthen, UK) for the poem

stars in jam jars

Lucy Nankivell (Ferndown, UK) for the poem

I Just Keep Seeing Spiders

Tasneem Mayet (London, UK) for the poem

Umma

Lottie Lunn (London, UK) for the poem

I WOULD’VE LOVED YOU EVEN IF YOUR SKIN WAS PEELING OFF

Alice Villa (Milan, Italy) for the poem

Alice Aplenty

Erin Boggs  (Ohio, USA) for the poem

The Hammer or the Jar

RESULTS OF THE POETRY KIT INTERNATIONAL POETRY COMPETITION 2023

I am pleased to announce that the result of the Poetry Kit International Poetry Competition is as follows.

1^st

Doreen Hinchliffe (London, UK) Cartographers

Runner -up

Jessamine O’Connor (Roscommon, Ireland) Notes on John 4

Highly Commended (In alphabetical order)

Ali Akpinar, (London, UK) Thousand Spices

Aaron Barschak, (London, UK) Sermon on Mounting Another

Collette Donne (Herts, UK) Russian Fall

Roger Elkin (Biddulph Moor, UK) Robin Hill

Katherine Gallagher (London, UK) Journeys in Railway Fields

Our congratulations go to the winner, the runner up and to those who were highly commended. The judges report and this list of winners will be published on the Poetry Kit Website within the next two weeks.

Jim Bennett, Poetry Kit

RESULTS OF THE POETRY KIT EKPHRASTIC POETRY COMPETITION 2023

1st Place

Intercessor by Glen Wilson (Portadown)

Runner-up

MONA LISA – Jane Edmonds (Beaconsfield)

Commended

Response to Misery by Joe Troughton (Gawthorpe)

Lady Jane by Scott Elder (France)

The Last Man… by Robin Gilbert (Cheltenham)

Sunflowers by Rita Carter (Ireland)

Nightfall, Luxor by Stephen Percival (Liverpool)

'Corporation Street Birmingham March 1914' by steve Harrison (Shropshire)

When I Say You I Mean Me by Suzanna Fitzpatrick (Orpington)

Fetus by Georgina Titmus (Truro)

A judges report will be published here as soon as we have it. But for now below is the winning poem by Glen Wilson.

Intercessor By Glen Wilson

After ‘A special pleader’ by Charles Burton Barber

They must have posted this out in the eighties

to all the homes in our area, it was that familiar.

In neighbours and friends house hung various sun-bleached copies,

the girl against the wall, the collie, one protective leg lifted,

ears bent to appease some authority figure out of frame,

the exact offence unexplained. We filled in many blanks.

Our copy was mounted in the landing, outside the bathroom,

while in the frame the scene led to a lounge with a piano,

I had never associated it with music or silence until now,

If this picture, or any picture has sound, it was the dog’s pleading.

The wallpaper in the painting was fancier than the wallpaper

it rested upon, though we did have curtains the same Olive green.

I only notice now the doll in the teal dress and yellow sash

passed out on the hardwood, no one ever came to lift her.

I always recollected that the girl was crying

but now face half-turned I see no tears

only a blush of an unknown shame.

We had a dog just like that collie,

I never got to say goodbye to her.

RUSULTS OF THE POETRY KIT SPRING COMPETITION 2023

1^st place

Underlay by Rachel Goodman (Hindringham, UK)

Runner-up

A Last Walk Along the Strand by Chris Raetschus (Hexham, UK)

Highly Commended

Nells House by Nancy Tinnell (Louisville, USA)

The universe by Mitali Parewa (London, UK)

Mistakes by Anna Kenyon (UK)

Ink by Anna Whitehouse (Birmingham, UK)

Communication by A C Clarke (Glasgow, UK)

Give me a Second by Gemma Barnett (UK)

Excarnation by Dan Mountain (Cheltenham, UK)

The poems for this year’s open Spring competition were varied. Dealing with diverse subjects from a train journey over the Rockies to a visit to the supermarket. A longlist was selected from the entries and from this came the shortlist and the eventual winners. The winning poem Underlay by Rachel Goodman was chosen because it is a unique poem, in some ways a meta poem, and one that moves through elements of a relationship and through time, through loss and generations, containing the stories of those relationships and dealing with loss. its use of the device of printing out the draft of a poem onto a previously used piece of paper works very well and allows us a glimpse of "Nancy" who we can assume is the person being referred to in other parts of the poem. This use of revelation and the episodic way we see her and the viewpoint character works well and the result is an poem that at no time does this poem become mawkish but deals with its painful subjects in a matter of fact way, engaging the reader and drawing us along with these carefully presented snapshots. This poem with its imagery and metaphor left an impression that tipped the balance for me in selecting it as the winning poem.

Lucy Turnbull

Underlay by Rachel Goodman

March 2022. In the garage I find offcuts of carpet from before the ones she has now –

the carpets that would see her out. In Paradisum. Snowdrops.

The printer ink is running low, but I’m only at first draft stage. I print drafts on

Nancy’s Daily Care Plan

the backside of used paper; other people’s poems, earlier drafts, her last will and testament.

My font is sans serif. Nancy’s

She used to call it the Curse. Each month, hormones with their hammers pounded her brain. Sometimes at weekends too. We learnt not to resent her absence. Afternoon rest: Yes/No

Are we heading for a Third World War? It’s too late to prune the wisteria. The solicitor says I needn’t apply for probate. The charity shop only wants summer clothes.

Nancy does her own Beconase nasal spray every AM & PM

____________________ The days are threadbare. I’m only at first draft stage.

I’ve had too many coffees and the printer ink is running low.

Care Plan The faint lines of the tick boxes showing through are mildly irritating.

I prefer Calibri (Body) – no nonsense. We had to play quietly on migraine days.

My sister wears her elder child crown of thorns and is too wounded to discuss the practicalities.

Should I, could I, house some refugees? I have the room, but not the space. The lady in the butcher’s says perhaps they could help pick cabbages. I think of engineers and poets bent double in the fields.

I try to recycle. Sometimes the printer takes up two or ten pages at once and then gets stuck. It doesn’t do it with new paper. Her dying has made me surly and old.

_____________________

She wasn’t there when I started bleeding. Care I waited for the migraine. My sister got that gene – and the wedding ring – she cried. Plan

I got the arthritis. Sapphires and diamonds. Nancy’s avec serif

She said the carpets would see her out, but there were bald patches where her feet had been. She put rugs down. I said they were a trip hazard. My sister agreed.

The days are threadbare. You can almost see the underlay. I would have picked daffodils for her about now. Seven black sacks of birthday cards.

Catheter night bag: Clarity? Capacity? Concerns? Too many sandals.

It was something we would have to accept, as girls. She married once. I married twice.

My sister married someone in 1985 so she could get her green card. Did Nancy ever know?

There’s a Bra Bank outside Tesco. Her underwear drawer is full of empty Jo Malone bottles and lavender bags that smell of nothing.

____________________

The policeman was embarrassed, told us to take off her jewellery, just in case. Her earrings were clogged with face powder. I cleaned them, but I can’t wear them.

I showed my daughter how to put a tampon in. Supervise & Assist sans serif

The ink is running low. I’ll print out this version on a clean sheet. The next version on its backside, so you will see the underlay. English Pear & Freesia. Five nail clippers. Hairpins.

Oil of Olay. A heart cushion – I love Grandma. Tena Lady. Tiger balm. Oramorph.

RESULTS OF THE 2023 INTERNATIONAL POETRY COMPETITION

1^st Place

Rewilding the lounge by Greta Ross (Canterbury UK)

2^nd Place

Artisan by Sue Hansard (Tamworth, UK)

3^rd Place

breast scan by Ansuya Patel (London UK)

Highly Commended

Ornithomancy by Cathy Dalton (Ireland)

One London man by Elizabeth Davies (UK)

Winding Sheet by Camilla Lambert (Arundel UK)

Urban blackbirds and me by Glen Wilson (Portadown NI)

Galaxy by Jenny Mitchell (London UK)

A Kind of Humming Silence by Alicia Sometimes (Victoria, Australia)

This Morning I Was Not a Bird by Ion Corcos (NSW Australia)

The pot still stands in the sun by Diane Jackman (Norwich, UK)

Young Politician's Guide to the Orchestra by Derek Sellen (Canterbury UK)

Heavy lifting by A C Clarke (Glasgow, UK)

Abandoned petrol station at Harwich International by Nico Volkerts (The Netherlands)

Re-education Centre by Dean Gessie (Canada)

The Judge James Bain says

“I read through all of the wonderful entries, over 300 in all and the standard of the poetry was exceptionally high. I reduced these to a long list and then to the short list you see above before deciding that the quality and uniqueness of Rewilding the Lounge by Greta Ross was the poem I would chose as the winner. Greta’s poem stuck in the mind and developed the scene in a very surreal way but one that took the reader with her. It raised questions and presented unique and interesting images. “

The winning Poem

Rewilding the lounge by Greta Ross

From where the armchair lives comes a flurry of air,

I notice a new burrow not there yesterday. Good.

Glad the rewilding is getting on. About time new beasties came.

The scurries are muted, for they know I write for them

and I need silence to think, let things grow.

Most days I scroll the internet, then gaze at the bookshelves.

The old hardbacks have not shifted for years and I note

the bookcase has put down roots as if to show my intention

of reading those still-virgin books is laughable. In fact

it is creaking from excessive smirking. Maybe I will open one,

though disturbing a sleeping aged book is cruel.

An old stained TS Eliot stares at me. I have not responded.

He tempts with the usual tableaux of sacrifice, sex and other rituals

in meandering verses I blame on the Margate sea air.

Yeats is yellowing. So is Hughes and Heaney. A touch of the sun.

The gang of newer Bookers peek through spider webs. They can wait.

Above them, a Divine Comedy sprawls over-fed with terza rimas.

There is a groan. The Readers Digest Great World Atlas leans

riffling self-important pages. I have not the heart to dump it, poor thing,

all those wars, so many renamed countries, it will have a fit.

So the old Atlas stays. Well what do you expect me to do?

The rest of the house is surplus to requirements. It does its own thing.

Yes, you wonder about the toilet and shower. I am not feral, I do use those.

I don’t go shopping. I grow food where I can in the lounge. Self sufficiency.

My trusty microwave whirrs and pings. We chat over coffee.

I have seen its little legs grow, soon it’ll wander off to find a nicer spot.

The Venetian blinds have turned more earthy, retro tinted brown,

their vertical slats swishing to try getting through glass. I shout

don’t be so stupid but they just sigh scusate, parliamo solo italiano.

The lounge wall’s bare spaces are inventing neo-Dada art,

amazing the surreal effects they get with fungal mapping,

careful antique gouges, dribbles of painted masonry

and cameos exposing board and batten. I might put frames

round the more outspoken patches. Open a gallery.

Sell murals like Banksy. Rewilding, it’s a wonderful life.

Results of the Poetry Kit Ekphrastic Poetry Competition 2022

1st

artist in the canoe by Catherine Heighway (London, Canada)

Highly Commended

Aspirations of a Goldfish by Pauline Gould (Birmingham, UK)

the Hardanger fiddle by Derek Sellen (Canterbury, UK) -

Still Life by Robin Gilbert (Cheltenham, UK)

Marshal Ney… by Corinne Lawrence (Stockport, UK)

Mr Plimt’s problem with models by John Ling (Manchester, UK)

Bride by Carolyn Peck – (Whitchurch Canonicorum, UK)

The First Sighting of Antarctica by Gabriel Griffin (Italy)

The Angelus by S.M.Beckett (Trinidad)

My congratulations to the winner and to the other highly commended poets. There were some outstanding entries this year and those picked out by the judge were all such a high standard that the selection of the winner came down to very fine margins.

Results of the Spring Poetry Competition 2022

1st Place

That morning I woke in Peter's Bed by Averill Long

2nd Place

Nabokov's Dreams by Mandy Pannett

Highly Commended (in random order)

Prometheus considers the benison of night-times by Roger Elkin
Did they separate us? by Judith Wozniak

Oystercatchers by Damaris West

Waking in the Loft by Pauline Gould

Having a lovely time... by Gabriel Griffin

Easy living by Rod Whitworth

Life's Candle by Joy Lebof

The Ballad of Hardy’s Heart by Copland Smith

Camels and a thinking Fish by Mandy Pannett

We are pleased to announce the results of the Poetry Kit International Poetry Competition 2022.

Thank you to everyone who entered our competition. Our sole judge, James Bain, has picked selected some fine poems any one of which could have been a winner. The winning and commended poets will invited to submit a selection of their poems including the one from the competition and these will be published later on the Poetry Kit Blog as part of a special feature. Those on the list below will be contacted about this in a short while.

So again with thanks to all who entered here is the result.

^{Competition Winner}
A time of life - Marie Feldman (London, UK)

Runner up
Rooted in Rock – Joan Gooding (Carlisle, UK)

Commended (in alphabetical order)
Afternoon Storm in Sunshine – Michelle Pozar (Lilliwaup, WA. USA)
Castaway – Anthony Watts (Taunton, UK)
Cockle Shell - Damaris West (Ayr, UK)
Convolvulus - Veronica Aaronson (Newton Abbot, UK)
Hope Resurfaces For the Girl at Greggs – Andy Millican (UK)
Part 4 - in solidarity with Ian Dury - Sheila Schofield Large (Correz, France)
The Littoral – Sarah Frost (Durban, South Africa)
Time and Tide – Jo Sanders (London, UK)
Until Morning – Erin Koronis (Gloucester, UK)

Poetry Kit Ekphrastic Poem Competition 2021

I am pleased to announce the result is as follows

1^st

Ophelia by Lynda Turbet

2^nd

You there in the painting by Thomas Piper

3^rd

The Falling Man by Jean Hall

Commended

Rene Magritte’s The Lovers 1 & 2 by Jan Harris

The Rent Man by Lynne C Potter

Reclining Female Nude 1917-20 by Jude Rosen

Dust by Noel King

‘We are making a new world’ by Mary Anne Smith Sellen

The winning poem

Ophelia by Lynda Turbet

(after Millais)

Poor Lizzie, weighted by water

her antique dress spread wide

(its tarnished silver thread

stinks of old sweat and cat)

lies in her bath, uncomplaining;

what it is to be a stunner.

Mr Millais lights warm lamps but -

too often he forgets when they go out,

paints on. She dozes, tries to shift,

thinks of soft pillows, quilts,

Mr Rosetti’s lustrous curls,

his artist’s hands unbuttoning.

Her mind floats free under willows;

loosestrife, mallow, violets,

swim to her hands;

her red hair spreads like weed

buoying her head. Mother said

You’ll catch your death my girl

it ent respectable

She feels the creeping chill

imagines minnows, froglets

tangling her curls. A water snake

inches between folds.

Here, she’s already drowned.

THE POETRY KIT SPRING COMPETITION 2021

I am pleased to announce the results of the Poetry Kit Spring Competition 2021. Congratulations to our winners and those commended by the judge. We will be publishing the results online at https://www.poetrykit.org/PKcomp.htm today and a report will be published on the page at the end of July.

Mary Devine, Competitions organiser, The Poetry Kit.

1st Place

Lesley Burt, Christchurch, UK

Turner explains colour to Newton during sunrise at the Cathedral

2^nd Place

David Moore, Mason, Ohio, USA

Before I lost it

Commended

Charlie Bowrey, London, UK

Eastbourne pier

Lucy Crispin, Kendal, UK

foreshore

Doreen Hinchliffe, London, UK

Handiwork

James Finnegan, Letterkeny, Co Donegal, Ireland

Thirteen Thigs I Get From Charles Wright

Miriam Patrick, W Sussex, UK

A Letter to Alan Lewis

RESULTS OF THE POETRY KIT INTERNATIONAL POETRY COMPETITION 2021

1^st prize awarded to

Gabriel Griffin - Italy

The Heart and the Limbs of Home

2nd Prize awarded to

Simon Bonnet – Berlin, Germany

And an end to all this

Commended

Nazan Osman - London, UK

a potion brewer looking into their collection of vials they mixed after collecting samples from their childhood home

Miles Larmour - Leamington Spa, UK

Circling Back

Konstandinos Mahoney – London, UK

WORKING FROM HOME (8): ANACONDA

Alwyn Marriage - Guildford, UK
Late Home

Peter J Donnelly - York, UK

Seagulls

Aashik Sekharan – London UK

Photograph

Lesley Burt – Christchurch, UK

solstice at home

Angie Davies – Llandeilo, UK

My (Black) Doc Martens Boots

Glen Wilson – Portadown, Northern Ireland

The colours of autumn

Camilla Lambert - Arundel, UK

Home-made preserves

Tessa Hall – Woodstock, UK

'Cheese Sandwiches at the Convent'

Anne Swannell - Victoria, Canada

From Kharaz Refugee Camp, Yemen

Anthony Watts, TAUNTON, UK

The Gap

Samantha Bush - Park City, Utah, USA

on the ferry home

Alastair de Grandis – Morbihan, France

Walking Home

Michelle Marie Jacquot - Los Angeles, CA USA

Writing on The Wall

Poetry Kit Ekphrastic Poetry Competition 2020

Due to an irregularity the poem that was originally chosen and placed first has been disqualified. The results now are as follows.

1^st place is awarded to

Seurat’s little girl … by Roger Elkin - UK

2nd place

Sally Morgan Clair Chilvers - UK

(third place will not be awarded)

Commended Poems

The standard was very high and ultimately I felt that all of these poets should know that their poems came vey close in the final consideration and I wish to commend all of the poems that appeared on my shortlist.

At the Albertina by Patrick Osada, UK

Two Persons Reluctant to be Born by Noel King - Ireland

Seawater Carrots and the Pleasantness of Salted Persuasion by Ion Corcos - Australia

Reading the Letter by Greta Ross - UK

Fluid Icons by Kathryn Fry - Australia

Hilda is dreaming by Mary Anne Smith Sellen - UK

La Coiffure. by Jo Sanders - UK

Breathing Exercise by Daphne Milne - Australia

Montmartre by Doreen Hinchliffe - UK

Apparitions by Audrey McIlvain - UK

I wish I’d stayed in bed by Dorrie Johnson - UK

Mr & Mrs Andrews visit Flatford Mill by Lesley Burt - UK

Artist, mid-morning by Alwyn Marriage - UK
Vermeer’s The Concert by Isabella Mead - UK

Serial adultery by Estelle Price - UK
Mudlark by Gill Garrett - UK

The Fever Van by Victoria Gatehouse - UK

Black Country Absinthe by Zoe Piponides - Cyprus

Congratulations to the winners and commended poems. Thank you for your wonderful poetry.

Jim

Jim Bennett, Poetry Kit

The results of the Poetry Kit Spring Competition 2020

I am pleased to announce that the results of the competition are as follows.

The Judges report will be posted on this page later in the month.

1^st place

An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, 1768 by Greta Ross (Canterbury, UK)

2^nd Place

The horse on the beach by Mike French (Frankfurt, Germany)

Highly Commended

Home by Kirsty Goodman (Cornwall, UK)

Sirin by Sumio Kobayashi (Japan)

Social isolation Hazel Teare (Isle of Man)

Tidings Above the Stour - Jon Fink (Manningtree, Essex)

Sundays at Home by Judith Wozniak (Titchfield, UK)
Holy Well by Maurice Franceschi (Glasgow, UK)

Knitting by Clair Chilvers (Cheltenham)

The Snake - Nora Nadjarian (Cyprus)

On the debate about teaching Latin by Pete Pitman (Stapleford, Notts)

Nocturn by Sarah Nichols (Coggeshall, Essex)

THE POETRY KIT AUTUMN COMPETITION 2019

Result of the Poetry Kit Autumn Competition 2019

Winning Poem

Those things you do by David Sands (Newtown, Wales)

2nd Place

His life's work by Jan Harris (Notts, UK)

Commended

"One Tear" by Alex Kulbel (Yankton, SD, USA )

imprinting by saskia ashby (Mablethorpe Park)

The Bramblelands by Laura Potts ( West Yorkshire)

Hoarding by Philippa Hatton-Lepine (Melton Mowbray)

The seaweed girl by Roshni Paul (Birmingham, UK)

Leaving by Guy Martyn (Gosfield)

Murmuration by Mary Bray (Lowestoft, UK)

THE AIR IS WAITING by Mandy Pannett (Pulborough)

The competition which closed in December had many really strong entries which made selecting a winner very difficult. The winner and second place are both memorable and are fine poems through which the reader can engage with well rounded viewpoints both with strong individual voices.

The winning poems will be issued as a special edition of Caught in the Net at Easter.

THE POETRY KIT SPRING COMPETITION 2019

I am pleased to announce the results of the Poetry Kit Spring Competition.  Congratulations to those listed below and commiserations if your poem was not

chosen on this occasion.   The standard was very high and choosing between poems was once again a very difficult task the winner though was engaging and

evocative to such an extent that it resonated for a long while after it was read, and in the end it was this quality that won the competition. (Jim Bennett)

The winning poem 
The Light Fandango by Ronnie Goodyer

2nd Place
To a Point on the Horizon by Francis York 

Commended poems (in no particular order)

X Marks the Spot M. Valentne Williams
Journey of a Black Umbrella by Mandy Pannett
My Father Says by M V Williams
Departure at 66 Street by Jason Smith
Box Brownie by Sheila Donald
Eyes of Glass by Nick Hook
Duffy’s Gate by James Finnegan 
My Moon in Cancer by Ronnie Goodyer
Palimpsest by Sara Davis
Passage by Polly Giantonio
The Mapmaker by Nicolette Golding
Making and Wrecking. Again by Mandy Pannett

THE POETRY KIT WINTER COMPETITION 2019

Winner
Grandma's dancing by Eleanor Scorah  - Durham

 Runner-up
 Best Friends by Jess Tucker Boyd  - London

Commended
All That Jazz by Lauren Colley 
Nebulous by Andy Millican
Herons by Helên Thomas
Bones by Amy Archer-Williams
When I was Queen of Poetry by Sarah Lewis
The old line through beech woods by Lesley Burt 

Short listed
When You’re Friends with Someone... by Carolyn Oulton
Things to do after by Tim Dowley
The Wardrobe by Sarah Lancaster   Romania   
Delicate Leaves by Margaret Staniforth
Orchards at Grenfell by Mandy Pannett
Out of a Wall by Mandy Pannett
The Cowrie Shell by Tim Taylor
Wife by Noel; King
Guard Llama by Allyn Alecrim  - USA
Brad from Joe Soaps Hand Car Wash by Roger Elkin
Rocky by Julia Paillier
History by David Mell
The Walk at Kintsbury by Matthew Adamo
Six By Six Shed by Laura Jenner
The New Team by Carolyn O' Connell 
Travelling alone, together by Jan Harris
A private view by Danny Herbert

THE POETRY KIT SUMMER COMPETITION 2018

Results Poetry Kit Summer Competition, 2018

The winning poem
Bagpuss Makes a List of Complaints by Jane Burn from County Durham, UK

Runner-up

Boots by Louisa Goodman from Houston, TX. USA

The other poems that made it to the shortlist are listed here and are highly commended.

Corfe Castle at sunset by Lesley Burt from Dorset, UK

Talking About Your Favourite Book by Maurice Devitt from Dublin, Republic of Ireland

Marshall by Charnjit Gill from Hayes, UK

The Woman You Never Tell, Anyone You Know by Sharmeka Victoria Hunter from Clairton PA, USA

Chromatic Cycle by Mike Jones from Wantage, UK

Apologies to Casabianca by John Lepine from Stockport, UK

A Beginners’ Guide to the Galaxy by Al Mcclimens

'To a Tortoise by Mandy Pannett from West Sussex, UK

Hats by Judith Wozniak from Fareham, UK

Selecting a winner from the entries in this year’s Summer Competition was difficult task. There were many excellent poems that even selecting a shortlist meant a lot of difficult decisions had to be made. All of the shortlisted poets engaged the reader with a strong visual element, using images to illustrate strong detail in their poetry.

The shortlisted poems were all fine pieces of work that had earned their place in the final selection. From the short list the winning poem and the runner up and commended poems were chosen and it was very difficult to decide the overall winner, but in the end it was memorable imagery and a unique approach that had made the difference. After reading the poems the winner was the poem that stayed with me. I was particularly taken by the humour and style which was engaging and memorable, but mostly it was the underlying metaphor that captured the imagination.

Bagpuss Makes a List of Complaints by Jane Burn

My Dearest Emily,
I feel I must write. Cloth jawed as I am,
my pen must do the talking. There’s got to be
something wrong with us when I only
come to life when you’re around – I am bound
by your whisperings, prisoner of your magical words
Every time you find some bit of old crap
on the street it’s all sweet talk, all wake up
and look at this thing that I bring!
What if I don’t want to be bright?
Who the hell told you I have the answer
to everything anyway? As if I’m some
giant pink oracle – I’m perfectly happy
dozing in my sepia world, but you keep
thrusting me into colour. Every time
I have a thought, there it is, large as life
inside a giant bubble – every private dream
revealed for the world to see. I can’t
keep anything to myself. Emily, it’s hard
to hear you call me Old Fat Furry Catpuss.
It’s why I don’t find the nerve to leave this shop,
why my world stays behind windows.
Come on – a shop that has no customers?
Who pays the rates? I worry about you and
your endless ‘finding’. Others might see it
as theft. You will laugh, I’m sure.
You are young and don’t know that life’s not always
going to be wicker baskets. So I let you hold me –
one day you’ll need this as much as I do now.
Wake up! For pity’s sake, wouldn’t you spend
most of your time asleep if you had to listen,
day in, day out to Professor Yaffle’s chat?
He’s a jobsworth. A know-it-all – his mind
is filled with fuss and splinters.
I am surrounded by mice I can’t eat.
Fat? No need to be so personal.
I’m just big boned. I ought to leave but I love
the way you care for broken things.

THE POETRY KIT SPRING COMPETITION 2018



THE POETRY KIT SUMMER COMPETITION 2017

Poetry Kit Poetry Competition, Summer 2017 Results

Reading the entries was a real pleasure. There were many with clever use of language and strong images.

Winning Poem

According to Him by Terry Jones, from Carlisle

This is a well-chosen title that is more than just a name to identify the poem in setting the tone and the role of a kind of ‘third person’ narrator. The poem flows really well, tells us something of the kind of person the ‘him’ is, and contains some wonderful images; I especially loved: ‘coronas/of moth and midge’, ‘every fox almond-eyed and bushy, red as its myth’, and: ‘fussed full of trout’.


Highly Commended

From Manchester to Barra by Will Daunt, Ormskirk, Lancs

This poem was another I kept going back to. The image of pebbles in the first stanza tells so much in so few words, and follows through ‘rocks of family’ to the ‘stone’s throw’ of the final stanza. The language in places seems reminiscent of Dylan Thomas, perhaps especially in the second stanza. outstanding images; for example: ‘every fox almond-eyed and bushy, red as its myth’.

Commended Poems

From Barra to Vatersay by Will Daunt, Ormskirk, Lancs – this seems to be a companion piece to the highly commended poem, and is very evocative of life in a Hebridean landscape.

Mr Cox’s Monterey Pines by Dawn Bauling, Beaworthy, Devon Ronnie Goodyer
– this poem gives a real sense of carpe diem: how artist, photographer and poet work to capture the immediate moment.

Another Memory of Her, by James Babbs, Stanford, Il, USA
where a title works so well throughout the reading of the poem,

In the wings by Adele Cordner, Magor, Monmouthshire
for its evocative final stanza,

Soldiers for a New Millenium by Sharyl Heber, Los Osos, CA USA
which manipulates rhythm and language so well.

Other shortlisted poems

Hettie Gets Out by Janine Booth
Vogue Poetic Justice cut-up by Myrtle V
Procrastination by Susan Donaldson

Poetry Kit Spring Poetry Competition, 2017

The winning poem,

Hate, by Julia Carlson, Cambridge, MA. USA

The rest of the poems that made it to the shortlist are listed here in alphabetical order:

Auxi Fernandez in Morgan’s Bar: by Derek Sellen, Canterbury, UK

Incarnation – Paris Siege 1870-71 by Derek Sellen, Canterbury, UK

In Memory of Two Lives by Lisa Reily, Tacoma South, NSW, Australia

Memorial Service for Dame Cecily Saunders by Elizabeth Davies, London

Nostalgia by Yasmin Roe, Coniston

Worth It by Alicia Fernández, Leeds, West

Judges Report

The winning poem, Hate, succeeds in conveying complex emotions that are involved in compassion where circumstances make it difficult for the narrator to really help: a ‘heavy angry sad feeling’ is made explicit as is the ‘hate’ of the title, while the poem’s tone and content also convey gentleness and provide concrete contexts for the feelings. Form, tone and style make me think of the way O’Hara can turn everyday activity into a kind of meditation, linking the immediate with other events and environments. The movement between tenses works well in achieving this.

The rest of the poems that made it to the shortlist are listed here in alphabetical order:

Auxi Fernandez in Morgan’s Bar: the poem conveys a real sense of the dancer’s movement, and I especially liked the image of ‘face halved by light’.

Incarnation – Paris Siege 1870-71: this is an intriguing topic, which reminds me of that awful saying about ‘eating the elephant a spoonful at a time’; this section stood out: ‘Two massive, wrinkled beasts/scoured by a thousand lines, as if their pencil etchings/had taken absurd mass.’

In Memory of Two Lives: the image of the ‘eye dangling and bloodied’ is startling and horribly memorable.

Memorial Service for Dame Cecily Saunders: I liked this tribute to one of the founders of palliative care and the hospice movement; the writer has neatly referred to both beginning and ending in the opening line, and circled back to that at the end with ‘The ends are yours to love now’.

Nostalgia: this is a poem with a story to tell, leaving the reader to speculate, and leading into a satisfying last line: ‘The last little piece of you gone’.

Worth It: this poem takes an image of Dr Martens boots as a metaphor for developing ways to cope with the hard knocks of life. I liked the neat pun of the ending: ‘it is worth it/in the long run.’

Lesley Burt

HATE by Julia Carlson

Today I sat on a stone bench in Harvard Square

Eating an ice cream cone

I was waiting for the #1 bus

The sun was nice and warm on my face

Eight or nine sparrows watched me

I realized they were waiting to see if

I would throw them some crumbs.

They sat unmoving, silent, not a chirp

Tilting their heads from side to side

Watching me from an angle, as birds do.

I wondered if hungry people ever watched

Customers eating at a restaurant.

I remember reading a french poem about that -

Maybe by Jacques Prevert,

A boy presses his nose against the glass

And watches the man inside eating

His croissant and drinking coffee

The boy is so hungry, his stomach hurts

And he hasn’t a sou. In the poem

The man doesn't come out of the cafe

And offer to buy him breakfast.

No he comes out of the cafe and yells at him

Get lost, you dirty kid!

Nothing for a grubby gamin running the streets

With scuffed knees and dirty fingernails.

I crumbled up the rest of the ice cream cone

To little bits & tossed them to the sparrows

Who flocked and grabbed greedily

For despite the warm sun, it was a cold day.

I do not hate those sparrows

Or that hungry, grubby kid in the poem

But I do hate the angry guy who chased him away.

I find myself hating quite a few people these days

Mostly people in our “new” government

Who have power not only over

Grubby boys and their sisters who are hungry tonight,

But over the sparrows too,

Who like bees, lizards, and turtles

Like lakes and streams

May one day disappear from the earth.

I never thought I would own hate,

But I do now and

I am not ashamed of it -

This heavy angry sad feeling

That weighs on me like a big stone

As heavy as a grubby boy

Or a small flock of sparrows.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

THE POETRY KIT SUMMER  COMPETITION 2016

Winner of the Poetry Kit Summer Competition 2016

Ion Corcos – Ithaca from a Ferry

Commended

Derek Sellen – From the Inventory of the Museum of Twentieth Century Things

Oz Hardwick – Rock-a-Bye

Bethany Climpson – solar systems

Angela Rigby – Lost

A.C. Clarke – Portrait of the Author at Ten

Stuart Nunn – Severn, night, tide rising

Roger Elkin – Rock End

The results of the Poetry Kit Summer Poetry Competition

FIRST PRIZE

Orchard by Stuart Nunn

RUNNER UP

Stalin's cookbook by Karin van Heerden

‘HONOURABLE MENTIONS’

Cwm Du by Stuart Nunn

undertow by Angela Croft

I sit with my mother by Belinda Johnston

Camlet Moat, Epitaph by Kathleen Bryson

On the Verge by Dorothy Baird

My congratulations to you all. Thanks also to everyone who entered the competition this year which drew a fine bunch of entries. My thanks also to our judge, Lesley Burt who read and re-read all entries, picking a wonderful short list and finding a deserving winner from some excellent poems.

Jim – Poetry Kit

Poetry Kit Open Poetry Competition, 2012: Judge’s Report

The winning poem, ‘Orchard’ struck me immediately, and its impact increased through several readings, on the page and aloud. The relationship between two boys – at a guess between 10 and 13 years old - is shown through skilful language as well as observable activity. The opening line:

‘Although this was my territory, my special place,’

establishes the scene where the boys begin to square up to each other: someone is intruding into established territory, and with arrogance. The verbs the poet has selected reinforce this in the language of battle and death: ‘kicked’, ‘shied’, ‘slaughtered’, ‘insisted’.

The narrative picks out just enough of the behaviour to develop the story. The wry tone seems to express remembered emotion, suggesting that this could be an important personal memory. Imagery builds the atmosphere. I especially like ‘desultory hens’, and the swashbuckling feel of ‘Stewart Granger-ed round/ the derelict swede cutter’. The lines:

‘His shout produced in me the murderer,

the acid bath, the mystery of dissolving glamour.’

cleverly evoke the way that anger that can overwhelm. Then the final line makes such a great ending, exactly right in relation to children at an age when emotion can so easily prevail over logic. This is a memorable and impressive poem.

The runner-up, ‘Stalin’s cookbook’, tells a story of a relationship through images of food and nurture. A sense of family and national history is here. There is also strong implication about the complicated feelings that suicide leaves with grieving family and friends. I am very impressed by the poet’s skill in telling so much in such a concise and visual way. I also like the way the title gives vital information that is not included within the poem itself.

The following poems are also very worthy of mention:

1. ‘Cym Du’: beautifully constructed, with near rhyme used effectively at line endings, a strong narrative and a wonderful image of a softening red balloon discovered in a dark wet valley.

2. ‘I sit with my mother’: very poignant, with sharp, well observed and contrasting images.

3. ‘undertow’: develops a real sense of tension through the everyday to imagination and horror.

4. ‘Camlet Moat, Epitaph’: this reminds me of some of Dylan Thomas’s poetry, where language tumbles into images. I especially like ‘angled violence’, and the last line that ends the poem so well.

5. ‘On the Verge’: uses the natural world as a metaphor for approaching parenthood, with images of sea and air emphasising fluidity and uncertainty. I especially like the line: ‘where the sun sinks below the line that isn't there.’

There were great images in many poems that did not win. For example: ‘a gauze/To swap the bleeding sky’; ‘a fist in the froth, scrabbling for the last spoon’; ‘I hear them/Upstairs in my head/Moving stuff around’; ‘head twisted into a wince’; ‘Clouds gorge sun in layers’; there was a very vivid image of an African snake with ‘stiletto fangs’.

There were various recurring issues too, for example:

· unnecessarily repeated words, close together

· rhetorical questions used where a statement would do a better job

· grammatical errors such as words beginning in upper case, for no apparent reason, following a comma or colon

· language that sounds wonderful but loses its sense

· spelling errors

· some words ‘invented’ by merging two rather than keeping them as two

· titles that simply repeat a line from the poem

· the kind of personification where the first person ‘is’ a creature, or refers to ‘the wind’, or ‘summer’ as if a person

· many, many clichés, like ‘cruelly disappoint’, ‘glory of the sky’,

· reversal of language e,g. ‘the chilled mist it cleaves’ in order to make a rhyme with ‘leaves’

· some poems have really great stanzas eventually, but follow several ‘introductory’ lines or stanzas that add nothing to the poem

· some unnecessarily repeat information in a slightly different form

· some rely too heavily on shape in place of depth of content

· many fell into the trap of ‘telling’ rather than ‘showing’

Overall, I very much enjoyed the way poems celebrated nature, showed humour, sparkled with imagery. It was a great privilege to read them all.

FIRST PRIZE

Orchard by Stuart Nunn

Although this was my territory, my special place,

he led me through the ancient orchard

and told me what was what.

He kicked at troughs, shied windfalls

at the desultory hens, slaughtered thistle heads

with the ash sticks he’d insisted that we cut.

Just being there, he challenged me,

and we Stewart Granger-ed round

derelict swede cutter, swung on the two

remaining apple trees, scrumped little yellow ones,

despite my telling him that they were sour.

Tiring of that just as I was getting into it,

he squared up to the giant bramble clump,

where sometimes eggs were laid.

“Come out, Haigh. We know you’re in there.”

His shout produced in me the murderer,

the acid bath, the mystery of dissolving glamour.

So when he climbed up on the rackety gate

and said, “Why’s this a five-barred gate?

It hasn’t got five bars,” I was provoked

into my first infant existential blasphemy.

“Because it bloody is,” I said.

← Recent competition results