SLQ
Poetry Competition (October 2010) Judge’s Report By Geoff Stevens Prize Winners 1st. Getting Married with Gertrude
Stein
2nd. Thoughts On A Bad Day
3rd. Spock
Highly Commended (In no
particular order)
Tastes of Blue
Voice In The Night
The Age of No Dog*
Move On
*Note: I would like to see this poem’s last verse only
appear in the magazine.
The poem was commended for this last verse, which I think is
stronger standing alone.
Runners Up (In no particular
order)
Please Destroy
Teaching English Poetry In Hong Kong
Leaving Day
When Kieron Came
Dorm
Edinburgh
Lines
I chose the winner, Getting Married with Gertrude Stein,
for its clever admix of literary history and its surreal
conjecture of a marriage born within an active imagination.
It is well-written and daringly walks that balancing line of
poetry and prose without failing.
The second prize goes to Thoughts On A Bad Day which
has excellent images and an edge of the world feel about it.
Its last line is strong and powerful.
The third poem, Spock, almost lost out to Tastes
of Blue, but just edged forward by means of its
completely daft idea of a television space-alien becoming a
flat-mate and the clever analysis of his character’s
behaviour, likes and dislikes etc.
Tastes of Blue has a wonderful opening couplet and
some great blue-images, but lost out because some
comparisons (eg. lines 19-20) were not so concise as others.
Voice In The Night is simple and
to the point and sums up an age old conundrum. The last
verse of The Age Of No Dog hits you like the very
first BEWARE OF THE DOG sign must have done.
And Move On is a gentle observation of curiosity and
change with perhaps underlying deeper thoughts, or maybe an
air of resignation.
In general the best of the remaining poems had interesting
subject matter, some tending towards prose however, and
others lacking strong conclusive lines. SLQ
Geoff Stevens
Click
here for the results
| 