The winners of this year’s Fenland Poet Laureate and Young Poet Laureate have been announced.
The poetry competition, in its fourth year, received more than 130 entries. The finalists in each category were invited to read their poetry at the awards ceremony, which took place at the Wisbech and Fenland Museum.
The winner of the adult category was Jonathan Totman, of Ely, for his poem ‘Wicken Fen’. It impressed the judges with its subtle, deliberate pacing and haunting sparseness, which perfectly expressed the feeling of walking in the Fens.
Upon receiving the award, he said: “I’m over the moon – and still can’t quite believe it.”
As Fenland Poet Laureate, he will write poetry for local events and raise the profile of literary and creative writing throughout the Fens.
The junior category, for people aged 10 to 17, was won by 15 year-old Wisbech Grammar School student Harriet Munson for her poem ‘Incongruous’. It wowed judges with its vivid imagery, which beautifully captured the spirit of the Fens.
The judges also gave out a special merit prize, for the best non-Fenland poem, which was awarded to Cassandra Silva for her poem ‘My Box > Your Box’.
The competition receives support from ADeC and the Wisbech and Fenland Museum, and funding from the Wisbech Town Council and the Friends of the Wisbech and Fenland Museum.
RESULTS
Young Fenland Poet Laureate:
1st place – Harriet Munson ‘Incongruous’
2nd place – Alex Florance ‘Play Time’
3rd place – Anna Kober ‘Four Seasons in a Feather’
Highly commended:
Joe Bunker ‘Fenland Beauty’
Sana Khan ‘Sunsets’
Alice Pealling ‘Fenland Beauty’
Georgina Puttock ‘Fenland’
Rajveer Sira ‘If only we could freeze time’
Kristina Tunnard ‘If I were’
Kenzie Whyatt ‘Ribbon River’
Fenland Poet Laureate:
1st place – Jonathan Totman ‘Wicken Fen’
2nd place (Joint) – William Alderson ‘Silt Road’
2nd place (Joint) – Miriam Brown ‘On Glimpsing Etheldreda’
3rd place – David Kerridge ‘It Rained’
Highly commended:
Josh Bone ‘Bulrush Eyes’
Nigel Hilliam ‘Black Shuck’
Alan Irving ‘The Greatest Ouse’
Helen Pletts ‘Cornelius Vermuyden’
Martin Simmonds ‘The Great Ouse Cut-Off Channel’
Dominic O’Sullivan ‘Fen Blow’
Wicken Fen by Jonathan Totman
Then our love shunned the heights
for this maze of reed beds,
this making-our-way
along duckboard webs:
loosestrife, water mint,
stonewort, sedge.
Then it lived on the suck-
unsuck of shoes in sludge,
on warm wet socks
and thermos flasks, the chance
of a barn owl with the gathering
dusk. Then still, we ached:
me, hunched up like a birder
in a hide,
locked on what could be
a harrier, hunkered down
against the wind; a clutch
of chicks; a plastic bag. And you
under your raincoat hood,
seeking traces of life in the scrub:
a burrow, a nest, a mitten
thrown from a pram.
Willowherb, fern, then
quick, a muntjac deer,
bursting from a thicket
just at the moment
my head was turned -
marsh-coloured eyes
looking everywhere
but you. Then still,
still, we walked.
Incongruous by Harriet Munson
Not a picture postcard but a story that unfolds,
Unravelled from these lands, a rich historic tale.
Many memorable footprints have walked
Upon these boggy lands which have been proved
Too mighty for nearly them all.
Not a picture postcard but a story that unfolds,
Even the prolific Romans were defeated
By these forbidding soil scapes.
The adventurous King John, too, fell to its prey
Along with his crown jewels;
A sparkling mystery to this day.
Not a picture postcard but a story that unfolds,
The conquering cathedral, the stone ship of the Fens,
Presumed to sail on the flooded marsh forever,
Until grounded by the God of the Fens,
Vermuyden.
Who drained it to its contemporary glory,
Brining life to this believed platitudinous place.
Not a picture postcard
But an incongruous story to be told.
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