Winners of the Fourth International Poetry Competition
The
Fourth International Poetry Competition closed on November 1, 2005. Deliberation over the final line-up of winners
was long and hard, but by February 2006 the following successful entrants
were announced:
Winner
Congratulations
to Roland Bastien of Vancouver, Canada, who wins £500 for his poem "Mother".
Roland Bastien is
a multimedia artist, composer (new music) and poet. He started his
career in Montreal's Avant-Garde scene in 1979. His works were performed
at Tangente Danse Actuelle, vehicule-Art, the temples for new ideas in
performance at the time, also Vancouver (Western front), Toronto, (PowerPlant)
New York and Italy (Venice, Milano).
The international
library of poetry has published his poems in two books: Who's Who in
poetry in 2004 and The best poets in 2004. In 2005, Masque publishing
in England, in their Decanto Poetry Magazine has published his poems
in their April 16th issue and October 19th issue. The American Poets
Society has published his poems in Reflections,a compilation ISBN
0-9743429-6-3
Mother
Hitherto, the Nymph
Lulled to sleep
Dreams
Brought by the winds
Shrilled in the dark
To her lair
Under a lump.
Eclectic sounds
In dodecaphonic mode
dotted the air
Nights and days
Vanished in the flood
Of tumular light
And sprinkled with froth
The city of stones.
Milk gushed from her breasts
Peered at the door
Thus, girded the lump.
From her tits
Lips read
( Fondled like a child )
Crystal notes and echoes
Dropped one by one
To ease the sham.
Hitherto, fiddle
Became gleam
Brought by the wind
Shrilled in the dark
Under a lump.
US
Runner-up
Congratulations to Marisha
Huber,
of Kansas, who wins $150 for submitting the best entry from the United States with her
poem
"To the Victor".
To the Victor
There's really nothing of me left -
Straight-knifed harpies sliced peace(s) off me;
Long-backed strong bears ripped my soft shift of skin.
Who wins? Someone should.
There's supposed to be a victor in death.
So where's my ribbon, forked-blue, pinned down tight?
And where's my flag, kiting its wave across the sky?
There should be a bell, round bellied,
A Buddha-laugh tumbling down halls.
But there's just silence.
And I am crossed and folded and asking
who has won?
UK
Runner-up
Congratulations
to John Powell of Southampton, who wins £100 for entering the best runner-up poem
from the United Kingdom, "Lekker".
John Powell is a business professor in
his 50s who has been writing for many years. He has previously won
competitions with work which reflects upon nationality and ethnicity and
on the relationship between ourselves and our environment. A continuing
theme of his work is language and identity and he is influenced by
Robert Frost, Dylan Thomas and RS Thomas, the latter two springing as he
does from the Anglo-Welsh culture of South Wales. His website is at www.j-h-powell.com
Lekker
The hard ecchs of your southern tongue
Fit neatly in my western mouth
Like a hot dry key into a rainy lock.
Learning your sunburnt words,
Drawn from the Boer soil like roots
Is a homecoming to a warm fire.
Your talk of your hiraeth and your brown birth
Draws me closer to you.
We share the discomfort of great neighbours.
Seeing you smile at my attempts
To trap your elegant African vowels
Is a sunrise in my dark and rainy west.
Soon I will tell you of my rainy love
In your own dry tongue,
Deep, timeless as your Afrikaner soil.
Lekker.
Special
commendations
Ten special commendations go out to
the following entrants (in alphabetical order):
Laura Andrews, United Kingdom, "rag-doll
exploration";
Helen Belgian, United Kingdom, "Dead
Man's Shoes";
Therese Down, United Kingdom, "Healing";
Nikki Dudley, United Kingdom, "Infiltration";
Raanan Hershberg, United States,
"still jerking off";
Dimitris P. Kraniotis, Greece, "Fictitious
line";
Anna Meryt, United Kingdom, "Cutting
through eternity";
Thomas Norris, United Arab Emirates,
"Winter’s Day, March 1992, Cork, Ireland";
Kirsten Rudolph, United Kingdom,
"The Bends";
Clare Walker, United Kingdom, "A
Thing, Brand New".
Roland Bastien is
a multimedia artist, composer (new music) and poet. He started his
career in Montreal's Avant-Garde scene in 1979. His works were performed
at Tangente Danse Actuelle, vehicule-Art, the temples for new ideas in
performance at the time, also Vancouver (Western front), Toronto, (PowerPlant)
New York and Italy (Venice, Milano).
Congratulations
to John Powell of Southampton, who wins £100 for entering the best runner-up poem
from the United Kingdom, "Lekker".
