The competition this year was judged by Gillian Clarke, our poet in residence for 2005. Next year, the competition will be judged by Don Paterson.

This year we had 2,500 entries. Many congratulations to everyone who took part.


Competition Winners

Category 1 (Adult section)

First prize
Rosie – Mike Barlow

Rosie
There’s a Stirk fallen from the cliff
to the shelter of bedrock by the river.
The smashed contraption of its body
bleeds a little, one eye stares at the sky
with a look of almost surprise.
Already it stinks.

The land’s too steep for a tractor,
The carcass too heavy for the few of us,
so you bring down Rosie from the luxury
of easy grazing.  Your pleasure
at finding her work seems matched
by something in her gait,
the shiver of her flanks, the bob and shake
of her head as you fix the collar.

We tie the rope-ends to the beast’s legs
and Rosie pulls, hooves gouging
steep peaty ground, an eagerness
you have to check so the deadweight
comes up evenly, doesn’t snag
on an overhanging branch or swing
lop-sided under a rocky sill,
but eases gently over the cliff’s lip.

You let her have her way then
And I’m that close I can recall even now
the piss and oatmeal smell,
those sweating buttocks, the pistons of her legs,
the startling energy of life at work,
pulling its counterweight uphill.

Second prize
The Boys in the Fish Shop – Kathryn Simmonds

The Boys in the Fish Shop
One winds a string of plastic parsley
around the rainbow trout,
the punnets of squat lobster and marinated anchovy,
the dish of jellied eels,
in which a spoon stands erect.
He’s young – eighteen perhaps,
with acne like the mottled skin of some pink fish,
and there’s gold in his ear, the hoop of a lure.
The others aren’t much older,
bantering in the back room,
that den of stinking mysteries
where boxes are carried.

The fish lie around all day, stunned
on their beds of crushed ice.
The boys take turns to stare
through the wide glass window,
hands on hips, an elbow on a broom,
lost for a minute in warm waters until
Yes darling, what can I get you?
and their knives return to scraping scales
in a shower of sequins,
slitting the seams of the fish like letters
which spill foul content.
Their fingers know a pound by guesswork,
they feel along the intricacies of gills and fins,
unpeel smoked salmon,
lay it fine as lace on cellophane.
A girl with mermaid hair glides past
and the boy with the pitted face looks up,
still gripping his knife, lips parting in a slack O.


Third prize
Two Catches – Gareth Evans

Two Catches
She went fishing outside the sea
And caught a wild one;
Half eel, half shark,
He slithered through her life
And chewed her heart.

One storm too far she threw him back,
Plumbed a local pool,
Hooked a flounder,
Reliable if flat,
Settled for that.

(Though when she died they
Found shark music still playing on
The stave of her ribs.)

Young persons section

First prize
Mirage – Alice Hemming

Mirage
He told her about the water
His words trickled from his lips
Each syllable a droplet, they collected,
In pools in her mind.

Watery England
A country of condensation
That precipitates,
Shifts like the mist.
Where in dewy gardens, trees drip green and
Places are a gathering of beads of moisture.

She echoes him
Rolling the words, liquid, around her mouth
Feeling them with her tongue
Tasting Englisness.
England was a mirage
To her desert dryness, a far off dancing of water.
She had different memories of moisture.


Second prize
Beans, Babes? – Haf Davies

"Beans, Babes?"
"Beans, Babes?"
The dinner queue's the same again,
the ladies ladling food on to your plate,
using endearments to address you,
because they do not know your name.

"Swede, sweet 'art?"
The grinding vowels of the Cardiff accent,
like a food mixer,
its spinning blades supplying sweetness.

"Lettuce, love?"
I think of what is to come,
In a few months time,
Warm words or cold comments?
Change of school,
change of body,
change of world.

"Ham, honey?"
I said a thank you – and meant it,
to the old aproned angels,
serving spoonfuls of soft-hearted words
"Beans, babes?" "Swede, sweet 'art?" "Lettuce, love?"


Third prize
Lilstock Harbour – Lydia Knoop

Lilstock Harbour
In the ghost-harbour I took refuge.
The vacant arches of the village, my mirror,
echoed me in the desolate beach
and the insomniac tossing of the sea.
Ram-shackled and shattered,
bleeding and in tatters,
but no more blood to lose.
My tears sucked dry,
devoid of all emotion.
This salt-sting has worn old.
In the mists of the horizon,
the fusion of the sea and sky,
feeling melts and fades to oblivion.

But out there,
across the dull
relentless tugging of the sea &

Could I be the one to walk on water?
Would you have me trust again
and again be broken?

The lights are sparkling on foreign shores
but I dare not tread, should the candles gutter
and be ultimately nothing more
than glitter.


Children's section

First prize
Bears in Japan – Matthew Wallace

Bears in Japan
The bus roars by like the rumbling stomachs
Of the unfed bears in Japan

The bears slump on the floor,
Heavy as rocks, empty as a desert.

The bears swagger to the shadows,
The blazing sun scorches their fur.

Some bears are old, they could be crumbling
Gravestones at the church.

The crumb of a sandwich falls into the pit,
The bears switch into fight mode and leap for the food.

The cub's lives have ended,
Before they have begun.
Doing tricks or being kept in cages,
Has ruined their lives forever.


Second prize
As seen in Club M! – Helen Woodhouse

As seen in Club M!
Teenage sister for sale
Almost mint condition
Classic R&B sleeves
Original vinyl shoes
78 RPM
May have a few scratches, piercings and tattoos.
If it gets stuck
Just lend it a few quid.


Third prize

Dreaming the Squirrel – Olly Katz

Dreaming the Squirrel
I dreamed I saw a squirrel last night,
He stood upon the fence.
He scampered in the fading light,
I watched him from the window.

He tried to steal the sunflower seeds
From the feeders up high,
He ran across the grass to the hazel tree
And there he sat nibbling for me to see.

His sharp little teeth bit easily through the nut
His claws in a tight grip upon the branch.
Suddenly there was a sharp, cool breeze
That awoke me from my deep, deep sleep
And there on my bed was a half eaten nut.

It lives there on my chest of drawers
And when life seems heavy, I take it out
And it helps me dream the squirrel
Once more.


Press Release

10.10.2005


HEREFORDSHIRE WINS AGAIN!

Alice Hemming and Matthew Wallace, both from Herefordshire, have each won First Prize in the young person’s and children’s category in a prestigious poetry competition organised annually by Ledbury Poetry Festival. Alice’s poem “Mirage” and Matthew’s poem “Bears in Japan” were selected by the Welsh poet Gillian Clarke from among the 2,500 entries. Gillian Clarke is renowned as the leading Welsh poet writing today – and is well-known in schools because her poetry features regularly in the GCSE examinations. “This is a really wonderful result,” said Festival Director Dr Charles Bennett, “and it just goes to show how much poetic talent there is in Herefordshire. I’m really delighted, of course, that we have had two winners from so close to home – although what you have to remember is that we have thousands of entries from all over the world – so this is something for Herefordshire to be really proud of.” Alice wins £100 and Matthew wins a £25 book token. In last year’s competition, the children’s category was won by Zoë Duffy, also from Herefordshire.

The Festival announces all the winners to coincide with National Poetry Day. In the adult category, the first prize went to Lancaster poet Mike Barlow for “Rosie”. Mike wins a free week’s tuition, worth £500, at the residential writing centre Ty Newydd, in North Wales. Kathryn Simmonds, who has appeared in the poetry festival, came second with “The Boys in the Fish Shop” and wins £250. Gareth Evans from Sheffield was in third place with “Two Catches”.

For more information about the Festival, call 0845 458 1743.

2006 WINNERS

2005 WINNERS

2004 WINNERS