The George Crabbe Memorial Poetry Competition

1995 Crabbe Memorial Competition - Third Prize
Adjudicators: Jeni Couzyn and Lawrence Sail

If it were just as easy as all that -
leaning a ladder on an outside wall,
smashing a pane and, in one minute flat,
snatching the well-known painting, frame and all,
by snipping the wire that held it into place,
then out again, with hardly any trace,

The George Crabbe Memorial Poetry Competition

1995 Crabbe Memorial Competition - Joint First Prize
Adjudicators: Jeni Couzyn and Lawrence Sail

School Walk
Freiberg 19.5.94

We walked along, as he might have done
With his father a long, long time ago.
A hazy heat, which had broken the
Pattern of rain, made the road dusty.
A swollen river,
Which I liked,
As he had done
And still did,
Probably.
Three shadows.

The George Crabbe Memorial Poetry Competition

1995 Crabbe Memorial Competition - Joint First Prize
Adjudicators: Jeni Couzyn and Lawrence Sail

Until a man speaks
all this is silence.

Out in the mist the cattle
lift their heads back and implore
the gods and graces
to continue blessing.

Man is at wonder still,
the door of his day
half-open.
Marvels in hearing how
the silence is both raucous
and unbroken.

The George Crabbe Memorial Poetry Competition

1996 Crabbe Memorial Competition - Third Prize
Adjudicators: Susan Wicks and William Scammell

Beyond day-centre walls
entered into a different world
bounded by fenced fields' paddocks
you sit well up there

trees look up to you wave
marvel at your mobility
you are nobility for an hour
you sit well up there

today you lead the parade
pages fawn at your feet
you could have been born to it
you sit well up there

The George Crabbe Memorial Poetry Competition

1996 Crabbe Memorial Competition - Second Prize
Adjudicators: Susan Wicks and William Scammell

Here cometh the scarecrows.

They drift in from lonely farmsteads
tired of drunken farmers
and the relentlessness of the weather
the high spirits of country children

exhausted by crows

they gather on the lawns of the mansion
a quiet assembly of the meek and forsaken.
Some have managed bicycles
others are foot weary
exasperated by wing feathers

without ale.

The George Crabbe Memorial Poetry Competition

1996 Crabbe Memorial Competition - First Prize
Adjudicators: Susan Wicks and William Scammell

There would have been a morning like this.
A near empty manor on the edge of the sea
and the waves instructed to be furious.
There would have been a few maids thrashing
cushions and preparing for the visit
that would transcend all previous visits.
The butler would insist on being lame.

The George Crabbe Memorial Poetry Competition

1997 Crabbe Memorial Competition - Third Prize
Adjudicator: Jo Shapcott

The George Crabbe Memorial Poetry Competition

1997 Crabbe Memorial Competition - Second Prize
Adjudicator: Jo Shapcott

For three weeks I have been walking,
Away from my village, my history and my home.
I have left my garden behind me.
There the ground is full of the ochra and the beans
That I planted, and watered, and dreamed over.
I could carry none of it with me becuse I must move quickly.

The George Crabbe Memorial Poetry Competition

1997 Crabbe Memorial Competition - First Prize
Adjudicator: Jo Shapcott

via Garibaldi

Last night I dreamed
I walked down via Garibaldi.
The palaces sighd, edging a little closer
and he street was full of turning faces:
of friends now dead, of creditors,
of bloated landlords, of lovers too.
It was difficult to walk through
so many people, difficult to know how best
to face the past. I smiled, I wept,
I bled in several places.

The George Crabbe Memorial Poetry Competition

1998 Crabbe Memorial Competition - Third Prize
Adjudicators: Martyn Crucefix and Judith Kazantzis

Small-town families squash in rows
of darkened plush

sweet wrappers crackle
as the lights go down

Hercules is briefly
an amusing baby

Suddenly we're in hell

A skeleton poles a boat
over a lake
brimming with lost souls wailing

and sinister shapes
drape
flap and howl

A child behind me
whimpers "I'm frightened!"