versification on a theme

The theme for this year’s National Poetry Day in the UK is stars. In conjunction with this, the Poetry Society ran a competition with the theme stripes for Stanza members.

I often wonder how judges can hope to choose ‘the best’ of a competition’s entries when all the poems are different styles and topics, so I definitely like competitions that either suggest a theme or demand a specific poetic form, as I feel there is then at least one identifiable point of comparison.

Or perhaps it’s simply that it makes it easier for me to choose which piece to submit to which competition.

I had no poems ready on the topic of stripes, so had to write a new one. In fact, I built one out of old fragments. And if you look at the results on Poetry Society web page, you’ll find it was commended. The winners are online, and the commended poems can be downloaded. This was my entry:

Lines as the sun rises above the pine copse

Dark across the lawn
gangling shadows stretch
between the honey promises
of clover

Under the hedge
a cross-hatched fret of grey
hems brightening green

Tucked in ivy dark
humbug snails hide
from the piercing sun

On the verandah
a single wasp investigates
a cricket corpse

Upwards to the summer sky
two iridescent flies
spiral round a barley-sugar twist
of vibrant air.