The 2019 winners from our 13th competition are below. Scroll down to view judges’ comments. To read the winning poems check out our anthologies page.
The 2019 Competition
1stPrize The Map-Maker’s Tale – Damen O’Brien (Queensland, Australia)
2ndPrize The Devil’s Shoes in Back Home Afro-Caribbean Shop – Pauline Plummer (North Shields, England)
3rdPrize What are you owl – Rob Miles (Leeds, England)
Our 2019 winner – Damen O’Brien
Highly Commended
4th Bob Dylan waits for the Ferry at Aust – Deborah Harvey (Bristol, England)
5th Making and Mending – Gill Learner (Reading, England)
6th The Enchantment of Maps – Jean James (Swansea, Wales)
7th Abandoned – Jackie Biggs (Newcastle Emlyn, Wales)
8th Frost at Lighthouse Beach – Partridge Boswell (Vermont, USA)
9th Marked – Trudi Petersen (Carmarthen, Wales)
10th Speak – Gareth A Roberts (Newbury, England)
11th Sestina – The Boxer – Alex Hancock (Dunvant, Wales)
12th The Promise of Elsewhere – Louise G Cole (County Roscommon, Ireland)
13th Ireland is Here – Noel King (County Kerry, Ireland)
14th Dockers 1930 – David Butler (County Wicklow, Ireland)
15th Waiting for Gold – Sheila Aldous (Teignharvey, England)
16th Mermaids, and where to find them – Karen Hill (Ramsbottom, England)
17th My mother’s heart – Phil Coleman (Pontardawe, Wales)
18th The Archangel Dreams – Peter Wallis (Norwich, England)
19th Ebb Tide, Morecombe Bay – M. Valentine Williams (Market Drayton, England)
20th The Red Kite – Barry Norris (Swansea, Wales)
Results were announced on our web site, Facebook Group and Twitter on Monday 1st July, 2019. We have also informed the UK national press, Literature Wales, Pontypridd Observer and associated district newspapers, SW Echo, the Western Mail, BBC Wales and RCTCBC as well as many organisations on our mailing list. Thanks to Mike Jenkins for judging this years competition, and thanks also to all those who entered and look forward to reading your work next year.
Organiser comment:
Once again, this year (like the last few years) was an especially good one with many, many poems being in contention for the Top 20. And so, in keeping with our aim to reward / recognise as many poets as possible we’ve taken the liberty, this year, to include (below) the names of the poems & poets who Mike Jenkins singled out for praise but didn’t quite make the cut:
Special mentions:
Oh To Be In England – Emlyn Williams
Cymraeg – Rachel Carney
Arabia Felix – Virginia Griem
Simon Says Nothing – Angela Fish
Don’t Swipe Her Like A Dish Cloth – Barry Norris
Superhero – Sally Festing
Pots Of Paint On The Roof – Brett Evans
100 Hours Of Darkness – Ashley Chan
Sister – Jan Westwood
These Feet – Vicky Hampton
Dachau Carpenter – John Baylis Post
In The Maternity Ward – Ann Leahly
Accordion – Pauline Plummer
Choughs At Llechwedd Slate Quarry – Sarah Lewis
Mapped Edge – Rob Cullen
Ermine Coats – Diana Sanders
In The High Street Charity Shop – Louise G Cole
Perfect Pitch – Christopher M James
How I Learned To Love Monsters – Gill Learner
Trefoil – Sharon Black
Brad From Joe Soaps Hand Car Wash – Roger Elkin
Cariad – Gareth A Roberts
On Newport Footbridge – Lawrence Illsley
Tragi-Colours Of Rajastan – Jeffrey Grenfell-Hill
She Tries Bless Her – Geraldine Hunt
Granny By The Sea – Judith Drazin
Flotsam – Phil Knight
Direction Of Breath – Bess Frimodig
Woken By Words – Lizzie Ballagher
The Gypsy – Dominique Hecq
Thrush Green – Sally Russell
Y Ddraig Goch – Rowan Kinnear (11 Yrs Old)
Judge’s Comments:
The Map-Makers Tale, by Damen O’Brien
The joy of judging a poetry competition is finding a poem which takes a totally different direction and approach to all the others and the winner’s exactly that. Not only is its narrative descriptively intense, but it creates in such a short space, a world you inhabit, albeit a frightening, dystopian one. Curiously, the imagery of maps was used effectively by three very good poets in this competition; but this one handles a grave topic with subtle imagination.
The Devil’s Shoes in Back Home Afro-Caribbean Shop, by Pauline Plummer
In contrast, the runner-up is single focussed, describing the shoes in the title and being led by them to a conclusion in the way that poems should best develop, following imagery and not ideas. These shoes take on characters, suggesting dance and celebration and, ultimately, dangerous allure. I love the way they sound so enticing and exciting, yet end with a sense of the hollowness of wealth and superficial attraction.
What are you owl, by Rob Miles
I was in a quandary regarding third place, but again the sheer power and empathy of this poem was hard to resist. While it owes something to Ted Hughes with ‘quill-swivelling / killer’, the awe throughout impressed. I especially love the ending, with its onomatopoeia of ‘You, you, you… or air.’
Mike Jenkins, 2019
See also our links page for details of poetry web sites in Wales and beyond.