This competition produced a good and interesting range of entries, and we are grateful to Cherry Smyth for undertaking the difficult task of judging. The results were as follows:
Winner
'One Morning in December' by Gillian Eaton
Second Place
'White Tower of Thessaloniki' by Desmond Kon
Third Place
'Gravity Hill' by Patrick Toland
Highly Commended
'Spoilage' by Stephen Wilson,
'In Harness' by Gordon Simms
Gillian Eaton's winning poem and a selection of others can be found below.
An anthology of all the winning poems and a (different) selection of others from the shortlist can be purchased via the publications page.
'One Morning in December' by Gillian Eaton
( To Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian fruit vendor who set himself on fire on December 17. 2010. This act set off a revolution across the Arab world. )
Your world is the weight of a melon
the number of oranges in a kilo sack
the difference in price of a peeled
or unpeeled prickly pear,
a simple scale with small brass weights
and a scooped bowl.
Without these the children don’t eat
and you pay and pay for what you already own.
But today something shifts
and the cheek will not turn again.
A random cruelty repeated so often,
breaks you so suddenly so utterly
you hunger to call down a cyclone,
a tornado of despair.
And in that swift moment of rage
with all the petrol you can afford
you set yourself on fire
a flame of screaming light.
But how could you know that your mother
would come running
that she would come running into the market place
into the bright catastrophe of your death
raising her hands to shield the sight
dropping to her knees, beating the floor
tearing the scarf and the hair from her head
scooping the flame onto her breast
swallowing the fire,
And how could you know that ten thousand mothers
would kneel beside her, and ten thousand fathers
and a hundred thousand children
and more and more gather
to watch you flare and fade
lighting up the dark heart
in all of us,
lighting up
all that’s left.
