School of Economic Science - Study Forums

[Alan Edward Roberts]

This summer there is the chance to share your thoughts and feelings on the subject of Beauty, in the measured, lively speech of poetry.

In association with Mrs Christine Lambie, editor of the School’s Insight Newsletter, the Poetry Forum will host a poetry competition.

The closing date for entry is September 15th, and the judges will be Mrs Shirley Burch, Mrs June West and Forum moderator Alan Edward Roberts.

The winner will be announced in Insight and on this Forum in late October 2014.

This is the first time that the School has initiated the idea of a poetry competition. It will go ahead if there are at least 15 entries.

Entries

- Will have Beauty as their theme.

- Will be the original work of the entrant.

- May not be more than 20 lines, excluding the title.

- Are welcome in any style, but in this anniversary year of Shakespeare’s birth, entries that honour the sonnet form or the tradition of iambic pentameter verse will be particularly appreciated.

- Should be submitted by email to poetrycompetition@fses.org, providing the entrant’s full name and postal address.

Entrants may enter up to five poems / entries.

For those without email access, entries marked Poetry Competition, providing the entrant’s name and postal address, and received by post at 11 Mandeville Place, London, W1U 3AJ, by 30th August will also be considered.

[Alan Edward Roberts]

The winning poem in the Insight Poetry Competition on the theme of Beauty is by Susan Whittall of Bromsgrove, Worcestershire:

May 15th

Look - the swifts are here!
Cherry blossom picks the pink
out of a ragged magnolia.
Lilac nods gently in tune
with two beds of tulips.
Orange blossom chats with three late daffs
and kerria plies its way
across the fences.

Autumn's fireworks are lost
in the ground cover
of periwinkles, bluebells and forget-me-nots,
and an odd little geranium shows its shadow-shy face
among the cornflowers.

All this. All this and the memory
of yesterday's blushing bullfinch
not two feet away from me.
One heart can't hold all of this,
can't hold so much spring
falling so casually into the arms
of an unknown summer.

From the judges:
It has been a privilege, a delight and a most moving experience to read and hear the voices of the 22 composers of the 46 poems on Beauty entered in the competition. All spoke from the heart. Many entries showed a skilful and creative use of both words and poetic structure, so that choosing a ‘best’ was difficult.

In the winning entry there was beauty in the observation, in the gaze of the observer and in the form and structure of the poem itself, outmatching some very close contenders, including those presented in sonnet form.

The judges congratulate and thank the participants for the honesty and feeling in their poems, all of which they felt demonstrated the truth in the following words of Boris Pasternak:

“Language, the home and dwelling of beauty and meaning, itself begins to think and speak for man and turns wholly into music….” Dr.Zhivago,Chapter 14,Section 8.

Susan's winning entry, together with nine other Highly Commended poems, are now posted under a new topic, "COMPETITION 2014: Winning & Highly Commended Poems".