|
£3,000
Winner: George
Coombs
Top
100 Poets 2003 Edition
Buy
This Book
£8.99
|
 |
 Top 100 Poets
2003
Top
Seven Prize
Winners
So the
decisions have been made.
After many months of
deliberation our editors have
chosen the Top 100 Poets of
the Year. Here are our top
prize winning poems:
George
Coombs - White
Flowers 
Jean
Medcalf - Seen
From A Train
Helen
Walker - A
Silent Scream
Alex Laird
- Thunderstorm
Gemma
Lutwyche - I Wish For A Dream
Alexander
Mackay - The Beasts Of War
Kathleen
Potter - Witching Hours
£3,000
White
Flowers
White flowers
I bring
Recalling hours
We spent together
In laughter,
In tears.
White, pure
Like the gift
You gave of
Yourself, flower
Of your personhood
Unfolds now
Beautified in memory.
Seasons turn,
Warmth and calmness
Touch me here
Where you rest in
The heart of holiness
Reaching me
Quietly and in peace.
George
Coombs
Top
£500
Seen
From A Train
A white
blizzard
Needling
the skin
Horizontally
In the
corner of the white cemetery
By the
angel of death
Six black
figures
Curving
Six black
umbrellas
Shielding
Their
faces from hail and grief
Surrounding
The black
hole
Patterning
The white
earth
Six red
wreaths
Like blood
Spilling
Jean
Medcalf
Top
£500
A
Silent Scream
Lumber
past my door
I see you,
Continue.
You do not
stop
Do not
look in,
Upon my
life.
To see my
willingness
To give
in.
I plead
with your
Shadow:
Stop;
If only
for one second
But you do
not hear me
I am
silent,
Waiting
For a
second thought;
A realisation.
Maybe it
was not
You, I
saw.
Perhaps
your shadow
Walks
alone, (past my door).
Helen
Walker
Top
£250
Thunderstorm
Leaden
clouds brood, lightning
signals,
Skies
crack, a rumbling environment
shakes.
Birds flee
in indiscreet haste,
Cloistered
firs open their bodies to the
heavens,
Natural
worlds wait, it’s coming.
Lightning
flashing intensifies.
Great
wrentings wrack the firmament,
Beasts in
the field stir,
Feral
foraging flounders in the
swamp -
Of ancient
fears.
Stillness
is total; tangible.
One
momentous flash, one final
roar,
The beast
relents; its waters in
unbridled torrents -
Create
crystal cathedral spires,
Their
pediments glow with strands of
rustic fire.
Drought,
thirst, the wait is over,
Foliage
caressed by nature’s wand,
accept the gift
Like
children from a mother’s
hand.
Rain-filled
gutters boil,
Bulged-eyed
gargoyles eject their gorgings
-
Upon an
unsuspecting Earth.
Drains
puke and heave protesting at
the silted soup,
Earthworms
flee an enemy -
More
prodigious than the
carnivorous mole.
Grain
fields bow, prostrate
themselves in homage -
To this
colossus, this Canterbury of
co-existence -
Twix sky
sea and land.
Alex
Laird
Top
£250
I
Wish For A Dream
A tear
trickles down my cheek,
Leaves a
shine, leaves me empty.
No longer
a smile, a show of fear,
Destined
for joy and pleading with
time,
I demand
for a dream to take place.
My mind is
filled with a horrible
nightmare,
A scrape
on my arm, a flood in my eyes,
I whine in
despair,
I cannot
find my destiny,
Powers
flow through me,
Destruction
dissolves and madness is
abstract,
What did
it solve?
Nothing,
just pain in my heart
And
frustration through my
fingers,
I have a
destiny,
But I’m
in distress,
I wish for
a dream,
But I
drink coffee and cream.
Gemma
Lutwyche
Top
£250
The
Beasts Of War
The Hounds
of Hell have been unleashed,
Slack
mouthed, dead eyed,
Following
the scent of greed
To gorge
on souls
Where
ravens feast on slaughter.
There also
wait the eaters of dreams
Where
flensers strip both flesh and
future
From the
bones of fallen men
And all of
that which lived and loved
Is fought
over amid mud and anguish.
For
nothing will remain.
No trace,
no fragmentary grain
Of strong
limb or noble spirit.
Sacrificed
on the alter of bloody war.
Offered up
to evil.
To be
forgotten
As surely
as the sun will rise.
So that
the Hounds may slip the leash
again
And war
May once
more reap its bitter harvest.
Alexander
‘Sandy’ MacKay
Top
£250
Witching
Hours
In
pregnant quiescence of night
frenzied
thoughts scream in silent
fright.
Weary
sleepless eyes squeezing tight
miss
clouds bathed in silvery light
beams.
Scimitar sharp they pierce the
gloom,
shadowy
long fingers of doom.
Wind-whipped
leaves whirl in crazy dance
frisky
russet snips soar and prance.
Icy stars,
diamonds suspended
pulsate
from light years unended,
spotlighting
frost’s mantle of lace.
Autumn
grace bows to winter’s pace.
Candles
flicker flame diminished
to rosy
dawn flare relinquished.
Witching
hours weave thoughts distorted
Day brings
peace all fears thwarted.
Kathleen
Potter
Poems
8-100…
To view
the other 93 Top 100 Poets of
the Year (10 x £100 and 83 x
£50), you can buy a copy of
the book in our online
shop,
alternatively call 01733
898101 to order your copy.
Top
|
