A CELEBRATION OF POETRY
JOHN REDMOND (author of How to Write a Poem and Thumb's Width) and PATRICK McGUINNESS (author of The Canals of Mars) will be speaking about How to Write a Poem and What makes a winning poem? at an event to honour the winners of the Blackwell Publishing / The Reader poetry competition
On THURSDAY September 21st from 6.30pm
At BLACKWELLS, Broad Street, Oxford
Refreshments will be available. To guarantee your place, call 01865 333623.
THE WINNERS
A big THANKYOU to everyone who entered the Blackwell Publishing / The Reader poetry competition.
The results were as follows:
| Winner: | Lonely Planet by Laura Webb, Manchester |
| Runners Up: | Needlework by Stephen Wilson, Oxford Clouds Hill by Adrian Blackledge, Birmingham |
The judges were so impressed with the quality of the entries that they also chose to commend three additional poems.
| Highly Commended: | Becoming Light by Mark Leech, Oxford Barrow by Wendy Cook, Helmshore, Lancashire The Shirley Valentine Syndrome by Pauline Suett Barbieri, Eastbourne |
CONGRATULATIONS to all our winning poets!
THE WINNING POEM
Lonely Planet
by Laura Webb, Manchester
His name was Lee. You knew his face.
The lettering was frail and spaced,
like beads on a cheap necklace, each pearl
a ball-bearing, and holding itself in place.
Somewhere in a kitchen, he is singing, making breakfast.
Years later, you buy his first hand
edition of Belgium: Bruges, Brussels and Ghent.
You follow him, turn at his folded corners,
walk the streets he underlined in red,
though nothing is the same. Only his name. See,
the time hes taken over each letter.
Somewhere, a while ago, he is shaking,
Gravitating towards the end of his tether.
