Winning Poem 2023

The winning poem is:

Reading Naomi Shihab Nye 
by Sylvia Cohen

Threading through her poems I think

of our kitchen which gives little of itself away until

I open the spice cupboard. Sharp scents of cinnamon,

nutmeg, cloves mingle gently, bring back the busy warmth

 

of a room central to the hum, the rhythm, of our life.

There are black heritage tomatoes in the fridge shining with

generations of flavour. I cradle them in my hands, bring back

the richness of their deep sweet-acrid taste, redolent of summer

 

by warm seas, slice them slowly, see-through thin, arrange

them on the platter decorated with deep, bright blue and red

stripes, scatter with onions, garlic, drizzle with olive oil. Just

as my brother described, fresh home from the Peloponnese,

 

his eyes shining with the light of the Mediterranean sky.

As I reach for black pepper, I catch sight of the special thyme

that grows on the folded slopes of the Mount of Olives nurtured,

like the trees, over centuries of slow peaceful farming life.  

 

Now, destruction and death frame time in the occupied land.

A young boy runs home from school hungry for dinner, falls

as a soldier’s bullet smashes into his skull, survives. Says

he has learned something. He will never feel hungry again.

Other shortlisted poems are:

Bait by Bettye Jo Bell  

A definition poem  

Bait bat n.,vt. 1. Bait: Food or likeness used to lure in angling. Earth worms and crickets were the only bait I understood until the day I learned to drive. “Bait your hook”:  Thread wriggling bodies onto metal hooks before the frantic creatures get away.  

We fished. At ten I squealed at captured brim and blue gill. Then I was baited. 

2. Baited: Enticed by deception, trickery so as to entrap or destroy. The old man running the fish camp asked me to go to the general store with him for corn meal to fry

fish and hushpuppies.  I climbed into his dirt caked yellow pickup truck. 3. Bait: An allurement, an enticement. Around the bend, along a dirt road, he grinned at me, said I could learn to drive.  Not taking that Bait! 4. Bait: Torment a trapped or restrained animal.  His grin, now  menacing, he yanked me to his lap and curled my fingers round the edges of the steering wheel.  “Drive,” he said, his foot on the gas pedal, his hands free.    

Child of the Raj

by Veronika Lake

Where I come from is crowded.

Labyrinthine streets writhe with humanity 

and the weight of insistent heat infuses

dust motes raised by a million tramping feet.

 

There monsoon rains fall in torrents.

Inside is the swish of a slow turning fan,

and the cool sure hands of my ayah,

dark on my white skin.

 

I am from the exotic, the whispering sweep of sari,

the sheen of silk caught in my eyes.

My bones are a spicy compound:

I breathe the fire of chilli, cinnamon powders my skin

 

My memories are moulded by music,

from the lilt of Hindustani lullabies

to the syncopated beat of rag-time jazz,

chiming temple bells and big-band, old-time pizazz.

 

I am from the grace of good manners,

tinkling gin & tonics, the click of mah-jong tiles,

and a fragile rosewood cabinet, with glass panels

revealing delicate ivory carvings and fine porcelain.

I am from the bric-a-brac of a world long gone.

She Sets in the West  –  by Áiné Rose

Clothrú speaks to Medb

I wondered what it was like, your first breath, demanding light from dark? Like an egg yolk, slid on a plate, dawn-slapped set in ways, left nothing in your wake. The tick of a kitchen clock, you are always there somehow, hiding or revealing. How do I know who is right, you or the moon? At noon, I tell you I am tired, you tell me to drop and run, never settle for anything other than yourself. A window stands between us, tapped heavy with handprints, all knuckle and bone, feverish, up and down, an amplified hysteria of their own. It is our child’s palms planted in washable paint, oh the noise of it all. I watch you rise, teeth grit to grind, banging around like Balor. I stay quiet. It’s better this way I reckon, the plight of your flight-long run. My double vision is the genesis of a sunken day. You say I must go and ignite like yellow butter spread ablaze, on veiny clotty clouds, that wet the bed in its own blinded light! Oh off with these words which you speak! Off with the way you fire-ball move, laid bare, a black hole to soothe! Your arsenal of charged dreams charge me into tarbh buile! But down here I will know no war. Why won’t you go and lay electric, on this fine-pink line, above windmills that cartwheel deformed? This disappearing act of yours, sweet girl, settle down, quieten below. Who shall rise again at tomorrow’s turn, hot like heartburn?

“Thou hast thy music too” – John Keats, Ode to Autumn

by Christopher Ringrose

The music of the western wind

conducted by the trees

makes golden leaves like crotchets spin

across a dozen minor keys.

 

The bushes of the herby shrubs

are daubed with redder hues;

the shears are snipping in the tubs

and fallen fruit smears on your shoes.

 

The sun dips lower earlier

and shadows rake the lawn;

cool raindrops seep into the clay

sojourner birds are gone.

 

The sap withdraws, the grasses fade,

and in its tight cocoon

the caterpillar is unmade

and dreams of winged June.

Helen Cox

Competition Judge : Writer and Coachtim-symonds-photo-by-lesley-abdela-110

Helen Cox is a Yorkshire-born novelist and poet with an MA in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of York St John. Helen has produced two poetry pamphlets and has had individual poems published in Popshot Magazine, Riggwelter, Visual Verse, Pop the Culture Pill and the TL;DR Women’s Anthology, among many others. She frequently runs online poetry workshops that are free to no income and low income poets and runs an annual masterclass for advanced writers in the craft. Helen also hosts The Poetrygram Podcast.