| 1st Prize | Attack of the Inscape by John Gallas | Prize £300 | Read Judges Report |
| 2nd Prize | Jungle by Shirley Cook | Prize £150 | Read Judges Report |
| 3rd Prize | Mallory’s Ice Axe by Derek Sellen | Prize £75 | Read Judges Report |
Highly commended poets
- Cherrie Taylor
- Molly Thapviwat
Commended poets
- Paul Roden
- Robin Daglish
- Richard Side
West Sussex Poets
Weir Wood: a Distant Prospect by Jeff Gallagher Read the Judges Report
Highly commended poets
- Mandy Pannett 2 poems
Commended poets
- Wendy Klein 2 poems
- Camilla Lambert
Adjudicator’s Report – Barry Smith
Lastly, Judge’s report
‘Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood’ T.S. Eliot
‘No poems can please for long or live that are written by water drinkers’ Horace
‘Inspiration is hard to come by. You have to take it where you find it’ Bob Dylan
Poetry exists in many styles and forms. In many ways it is easier to say what poetry isn’t rather than what it is, so I approached the task of selecting the Slipstream winners with an open mind, letting those poems with something distinctive to say speak to me. I didn’t expect to fully understand each poem on the first or even second reading but following Eliot, tried to allow the words to communicate on their own terms and in their own way.
I was looking for a spark, some arrangement of words on the page that would bring an image into focus that wasn’t there before, an enlightenment or illumination. Following Horace, I was looking for something of substance, something with a touch of fire or imagination about it that would differentiate it from the others. And taking Dylan’s precept about inspiration to heart, I wasn’t ruling anything in or anything out: inspiration can strike in unlikely or unexpected ways and take us poets on a journey to unexpected places.
The initial impression of a poem is formed not by what it says but what it looks like on the page. Dense, closely written, overloaded lines of verse can be off-putting from the outset. Those written with inventive use of space on the page are more invitational, encouraging the reader to delve deeper. It doesn’t have to be written in regular form or stanzaic patterns, though that can help to give a sense that the poet is in control of what they are writing. Space to react, think and feel can be crafted into the patterning of the poem. There are, after all, as many readings of a poem as there are readers. If there is only one definitive possible reading, it is likely to be a limited piece of writing, quickly put aside and not returned to again and again as the reader’s imagination works alongside the author’s. So, space then, on different levels for a joint exploration of topic, theme, image or idea.
Perhaps most important of all is the poet’s voice, that elusive quality that offers confident guidance to the reader, suggests reassurance that this is a good way to travel, to look at things. What do we mean by poetic voice? The uniquely individual expression, the tone, the shading of expression and meaning, the colouring of thoughts and ideas, the textures, the appeals to the senses, the poetic devices, the imagery, the unique palette of the artist in words. As writers, how do we judge the success of our crafting? It is, I’m sure, essential to read the developing poem out loud to test how it sounds, how it fits together, its integrity, its sense of purpose, its conviction.
Finally, having written our poems, how do we know if they are any good? Open mics, poetry workshops, submissions to competitions, online magazines or the print journals provide feedback of sorts though you have to take the knocks. After all, William Golding and Jane Austen were both initially rejected by publishers before finding a lasting place in the literary canon. I always remember the advice the great Welsh poet, Leslie Norris, gave to a group of English teachers at the West Sussex Institute of Higher Education at Chichester, where he taught. ‘When you think it’s finished, put it away for three months in your sock drawer. If it still seems to work when you rediscover it, it’s probably ok to go out into the world!’
General comments on the entries:
In the 168 poems submitted for this year’s competition, there was considerable variety in subject matter and expression. There was certainly something here for everyone. Nearly all the entries appeared to be the outcome of considered thought and some crafting, though some were apparently more hastily concocted. Most entries were written in free verse and if rhyme was used at all, it was occasional rather than in a regular pattern. There were quite a few longer poems. In some cases, it seemed that more editing could have been undertaken to allow the main thought and ideas to shine through more clearly. There were a considerable number of poems using longer lines. Perhaps a sharpening of focus could have produced a more striking poetical statement. Workshopping poems with fellow poets is often a useful exercise in finding the essence of what a poet is trying to express. In making my selection, I picked out a shortlist of those that had something about them that made them stand out in some way from the bulk of the poems. These I reread several times and lived with over a couple of weeks, returning to sift through them again, until I found I kept returning to the same poems. These then became those chosen as winners and commended. After that, it remained to place them in an order. All such judging is inevitably subjective, so another reader might well have come up with a different order. But after having lived with these poems for some time, I am happy to recommend them to you as worthy of your attention.
Recurring themes
- Scenes from nature
- Family
- Changing times
- Ekphrastic poetry/responses to art
- Personal crises
- People and places
First Prize: Attack of the Inscape
A highly original poem linking the great ‘outsider’ poets, Gerard Manley Hopkins and John Clare, in an exploration of aesthetic experience. The title poses questions and it really does help to know – or look up – GM Hopkins’ famous formulation of inscape developed from the medieval thinker Duns Scotus. We’re dealing with the unique, special identity of people and things, their internal beauty, aesthetic design. And it helps to know a bit about John Clare whose uniqueness of seeing things led to time recuperating in an asylum. But even without prior knowledge this poem works successfully in its evocation of responses to nature with imaginative vocabulary and phrasing: ‘each root & thorn an ecstasy’; being as ‘vulnerable as jelly’. The intensity of experience is powerfully described: ‘my too-flayed heart’ though it ends quietly: ‘I took a pipe…..& nursed the precious scab of my poor self inside my chair’.
Second Prize: Jungle
This ekphrastic poem recognises its debt to LS Lowry and evokes the famous image of a man lying on a wall – an image that poses questions, helpfully for the poet. There’s humour – ‘you wish you were in another painting?’ and visualisation, conjuring Rousseau’s velvet divan and employing evocative phrases: ‘foliage in soothing shades of green.’ As it develops the poem morphs into a consultation, with a patient lying on a couch, with humour again: ‘we’ll ignore the lions and pink-bellied snake’. It all leads to both a commercial pitch and a universal comment about ‘feeling on the edge’, ending archly with ‘don’t we all’.
Third Prize: Mallory’s Ice Axe
I liked the reference to Kafka’s dictum about ‘freeing the frozen soul inside you’ in a poem which deals with and celebrates risk-taking. Mallory’s axe – which famously turned up on an Antiques Roadshow and was subsequently auctioned for some £132,000 – is vividly described as having a ‘wingspan of steel’. We notice the creative use of form with 2 sections of teetering short lines to depict ‘dangling lives’ and a sense of vertigo: ‘and fell/in a/ crevasse’. There is a widening of focus in the central section to other risk-takers and adventurers in art (and sexuality) with the Charleston set, Bell, Strachey and Grant. The poem ends originally with a diminuendo, a litany of the lost, in decreasing font size.
Chanctonbury Cup Winner: Weir Wood
Weir Wood in real life is a nature reserve and a site of special scientific interest, hosting a range of wildlife from ospreys to damselflies. The poem is essentially an inventive list of artistic approaches highlighting how artists have or might have perceived the scene and by their magic, transforming it into a kind of tableaux installation. We check off the greats here – from Poussin’s shepherds to Constables trees. The colour palette is interestingly conjured from Corot’s greys to Hodgkin’s greens. There are nice touches of humour with Magritte failing to meet the challenge and – my favourite – the image of Caravaggio on a motorbike!