THE WINNER IS ROBIN RICHARDSON

WITHOUT A ROOF

Good god I'm gorgeous, open

     on the operating table, so impeccably pink
pearl you could drape me on a hotel heiress,
     make a mint. It is a costly transformation:

girl to goddess, curve to cosmic pin-up,

    star-strong in my homemade aristocracy.
The ring, I mean. The one he gave me days
    before I lifted like some unfeeling winged

thing on a plane that didn't crash.

    What's worse I'm well, not huffy, hidden
from the day, not having ended anyone,
    unsympathetic in the most exquisite way.

Nude, open on a billboard in the Amazon

    as pythons crawl inside to please. He disapproves:
the carefree sovereignty of solitude,
    almost anorexic silhouette. They say

it's tactless to be happy, living is an exercise

    in letting go, existence as a river runs
its course regardless of our ripples, but
    they're wrong. I'm running with it wrapped

around me, a translucent, minnow-print

     kimono, full of flow and following
a pathless cut through woods. There's freedom
     in what no one knows.


- winning poem by ROBIN RICHARDSON

Robin Richardson is the author of two collections of poetry, and is Editor-in-Chief at Minola Review. Her work has appeared in Salon, Hazlitt, Poetry Magazine, Tin House, Partisan, Joyland, The North American Review, and many others. She holds an MFA in Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. She has been shortlisted for the CBC, Walrus, and Lemon Hound Poetry Prizes. Richardson’s latest collection, Sit How You Want, is forthcoming with Véhicule Press. Poems from the collection have been adapted to song by composer Andrew Staniland for The Brooklyn Art Song Society, and premiered in 2016 in New York. Richardson’s Memoir “Like Father” is represented by Samantha Haywood at Transatlantic Agency.

whip-smart as Emily Berry

Judge's comments: Of the over 350 poems considered, this one (along with that by Emily Osborne, my runner-up, and someone any press would be happy to snap up) particularly stood out for seeming to combine the unlikely elements of eroticism, environmentalism, science and myth, with wit and surprise. Readers in North America will not be surprised - Richardson is a rising star there, and this poem shows why - its contemporary twist on metaphysical poetics is as dark as P. Lockwood's, her self-examination as Algonquin Round Table whip-smart as E. Berry's; there are perhaps a dozen younger women poets now writing in English, vying to be our age's Plath. (Hera L. Bird also comes to mind). Here we have Canada's answer to that seemingly futile, morbidly appealing quest. But this poem is far more than that would imply - its own glamorous volatility, medical weirdness, and brilliance of metaphor, is rather original. - DR TODD SWIFT, London, 18 May, 2017

14 POETS SHORTLISTED FOR THE FIRST FORTNIGHT POETRY PRIZE

Every two weeks a fortunate poet wins £140 - 14 poets get shortlisted, and one selected the winner... the winner's poem appears at this blog, along with their bio and photo... and the best poems from the shortlist become an anthology in time... Here we go...

Shortlist for the FORTNIGHT PRIZE, NUMBER ONE, May 3-17

 

1.    ASHLEY-ELIZABETH BEST, ‘Alignment’ (Canada)

2.    AUDREY MOLLOY, ‘A Gradual Eden’ (Ireland)

3.    CLAIRE CROWTHER, ‘Pets Don’t feel Pity’ (UK)

4.    EMILY OSBORNE, ‘Brute Facts’ (Canada)

5.    ERIC SIGLER, ‘The Panther’ (USA)

6.    FRANCINE WITTE, ‘Charley Explains Baseball To Me’ (USA)

7.    GLEN WILSON, ‘Rented Flat’ (Ireland)

8.    IAN DUDLEY, ‘President’ (UK)

9.    KATE NOAKES, ‘Edward’s Memory’ (France/UK)

10. MARC BRIGHTSIDE, ‘Influence-A’ (UK)

11. ROBIN RICHARDSON, ‘Without A Roof’ (Canada)

12. SILVIA GRADINARU, ‘Beginner’s Luck’ (Romania)

13. SIMON MIDDLETON, ‘Trev’ (UK)

14. SUZANNE MAGEE,’ Cross-section of a Stairwell’ (NI)

 

Brief judge’s comments – with over 350 poems from around the world, from well-published figures to first-time poets, the prize has already gotten off to a great start – but this made it a genuine challenge to find only 14 poems to represent the shortlist. There were probably 25 poets with some claim to be here, and maybe 50 or more poems almost good enough to make this list, but these stand out – either in terms of freshness, or intelligent reworking of the tradition, or in terms of simply being satisfyingly imaginative forays into language. I will decide the winner and announce them by Friday.  I am going to find it a genuine challenge. The next competition will begin soon, and I hope it is as successful as the first!

 

CATCHING UP

HE VOTED TRUMP, ALAS

Sorry for having been away. The world's tumult continues. Notably, and for the better, Macron beat Le Pen in France; the tide of hate was briefly halted. In America, Trump edged closer to Full Nixon, with this throttling of the very tall FBI director, and odd references to taped conversations.

Nixon, as an aside, had a drink problem, mental health issues, BUT - and this is a big but - for all his errors and personality problems, and troubling ambition, and disrespect for the law of the land - was an educated legal mind, with a strong sense of right and wrong, a keen intellect, and a very clear economic and foreign policy objective - to defeat Communism. That Nixon fell well below his ideals and values is his personal and political tragedy and legacy.

Disastrously for America now, and the world, Trump appears to have no moral compass, no worldview worth speaking of, no intellectual capacity - just the ambition, personality disorder, and lack of respect for the law of the land. He is, if you will, Richard III to Nixon's Julius Caesar. Both presidents, and men, are deeply flawed; one was a political monster (Nixon) - the other is an evil man edging towards becoming a despot.

In the UK, the right-wing media agenda is to argue that Labour's election manifesto is left of Stalin; it is not. In Canada, it would be viewed as normal mixed-economy socialism, of the kind the NDP adopts. Wanting free tuition for students, a well-run postal and rail service, lower energy bills, and more fairness in terms of pay, is hardly suicidal or insane. But that is how they destroy you in the UK - they ignore you, and if they cannot make you invisible, they make fun of you, or cast you as beyond the pale.

Labour's Corbyn is a weak leader, a dithering leader, and an oddly vain man; but he is not evil, or stupid. He is stubborn, and he is an idealist. This is a flaw, but it is not inherently wrong. Sadly, he lacks the charisma to elevate his Sanders-like arguments above the fray. Many of his hopes for the UK would be welcome by a majority. But he has let us all down badly by being vague on Trident, Brexit, and, indeed immigration. His moral compass works best when it tacks closest to communist, not socialist, ideologies, and that is not the majority-commanding way forward. Moderation is best, and his is an immoderate plan for Britain, in the end.  Too extreme, and too punishing of those different than himself.

No less immoderate is the Lemming-like PM May, who would throw the nation(s) off the cliff just to follow a bizarrely rigid definition of Brexit. You would think that the Brexit referendum had become the new Magna Carta or Constitution, so fanatically is it now defended as the main defining instrument of the land. In her own way, Theresa May is as revolutionary as Trump or Macron - for she seeks to be swept to power on a tide of support, to seek curiously personal, rigid, and even over-determined ends.

A few years ago, to suggest that Canada, France, Britain and the USA - the four strongest allied winners of World War 2 - would each have unexpectedly divisive, new or unusual leaders, voted in on large mandates - each following their own agendas, might have been surprising. But Trudeau and Macron are admirable, so far; May and Trump, much less so.

Corybyn might just win this election, but that is far from likely at this point. Brexit looks likely, and an impeachment looms in the US. In the end, it is The Donald who will usher in the 70s again, not The Jeremy...

THE MOTHER OF ALL WEEKS

MAY DAY MAY DAY! IT'S EASTER AND THE WORLD IS GOING CUCKOO!

I wonder when the last time Easter was so chock-full of news, like a confectionary egg bursting with cream? Perhaps in 1916? Maybe I am naïve, but it seems the past week has been nightmarishly busy with lots of dreadful things being decided or done by awful people. The fact that more than a few of them claim to be "Christians" only makes it all the more confusing.

Anyway, Trump went ahead and exceeded the ego limit. He dropped the Mother of all Bombs - a MOAB - a sadistically OTT bit of TNT that was pure theatre, and is even described by the US military as "designed to instil fear in the enemy" - which sounds like terrorism to me. Anyway, this bomb, even too big and nasty for Dubya to use in Iraq, got blown up over a mile radius. We can only imagine how many innocent farmers and shepherds were destroyed in that instant. This blog approves of some calculated, precision, targeted strikes, in just wars, but such broad-church blasting is ungenerousoly expansive. It is murderous sprawl and dumb as shit.

Then in Turkey the dictatorship tightened its grip, when a "slim majority" decided to let their leader become a ruler and stay on until 2029. He immediately used the referendum to justify bringing in the death penalty for traitors. Given that his definition is very wide indeed, we may start to see the sort of execution levels we get in China and the USA - worrying for a NATO ally. Trump of course congratulated the dictator-in-waiting.

I almost forgot the ongoing Korean Missile Crisis, which pits two megalomaniacs - either as ludicrous and dangerous as Dr Evil - against each other, and could still lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths if a war breaks out. Given the defiance from North Korea, and the "mad dogs" around the President, anything could happen. I myself suspect a Nixonian (Kissinger-created) doctrine of "the madman" is being deployed, to bluff, but the brinksmanship is pretty close to the edge.

And today, the British PM announced a sudden election for 8 June, in six weeks, to solidify her weak majority to go for Hard Brexit. Oddly, for a person dedicated to democracy and not playing games with politics, she is refusing to countenance any TV debates. One hopes a coalition of anti-Brexit MPS will gain a foothold, but Corbyn continues, bafflingly, to support this move (which breaks the understanding the fixed term would lead to a 2020 GE), after backing Brexit to the hilt. He is a quasi-quisling, it seems, or delusionally convinced he can somehow defeat the Tories on their own turf - strong governance.

I think there is more, including the very real possibility a very extremist person will soon be leading France.

I suppose the 1960s were crazy like this.  I can't quite remember a time since then quite so fraught as now.

HOLY WEEKS

SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO BREAK AN EGG AT EASTER

Several major religions are observing solemn, important festivals this month - holy days, holy weeks. Eyewear's team will be taking some time off, to be with their families and friends, and reflect, in their various ways, on this time of returning light.

Meanwhile, we have seen, in the past few days, inhumanity at the heart of our capitalist system (where it has been, hidden, for too long) - the decision to drag a doctor, bloodied and beaten, from a United Airlines plane he had lawfully bought a ticket for is yet another instance of the total decline in compassion and empathy rooting itself in a business-led model that ignores the value of life beneath the numbers.

Publishing, too, is not immune. Too often, authors, agents, and publishers, seek to profit from relationships that would be better off pursued for higher aims, of art, solidarity and creativity. Sharing is not much part of this dog-eat-dog Darwinian world, that pushes each against the other. It strikes me as one of the last paradoxes artists and writers avoid confronting - that the people who serve them (agents) utilise ruthless tactics worthy of a Hedge Fund manager, too often.

Business. Well, yes - but whether one is a vast airline, or a small press, a large agency, or a new author, we should seek to turn the work week away from a Cavalry of whips, jeers, taunts, blood and stones.

Yet, the Easter message is, Christ walked in that infernal district also, to paraphrase Lowry, once-read, less so now. Each of us to bear some measure of indignity and cruelty. But let us withhold the pain for others as we see them stumble past. Let's help people get to their work, patients, family, loved ones, their homes, in peace.

It is increasingly obvious that the mortal realm is bright and full of pain, as a songwriter once said. But some of that light can be from a simply warm day, when so many people clearly just want to lie out, or play, or spend time with those they care about. Simple cares, in a dark world.

No message here, really, but the age-old one - try and be kind to others. And yourself.

We will be back, end of April.

PROTECTING WESTMINSTER AND THE WIDER WORLD

WE'D ALL BE BETTER OFF IF SHE WAS IN CHARGE

A few days ago a person who was very angry at the state of the world, and who had determined to do something violent in the name of extreme views, went on a rampage outside of the British houses of parliament.
A terror incident, and awfully, innocent people were injured, and killed, including an officer guarding the home of democracy in these isles. Images of an heroic MP bloodied and unbowed, and talk of the Blitz spirit, boomed across the globe.... Britain is strong, and unbeaten.

Family members of the killer have apologised. Debates rage about his religious identity, and how someone "home grown" could end up so hate-filled - as if this was not also the country that gave us Cromwell and Jack The Ripper. Hate is often grown at home.

The new PM, Mrs May, spoke eloquently, and in rather rhetorical fashion, about the greatness of democracy and Westminster. True, but painfully ironic. For, while the terrorist in London has taken a few lives cruelly soon, and criminally, with evil intent, he has also vanished in the action himself, and his attack will, in the way of such things, only harden positions, and build tougher ramparts and road blocks; he cannot defeat the idea of British democracy with a knife and a car - even a bomb.

Politicians, however, even duly elected ones, CAN destroy democracy, or imperil nations, with their decision-making. There is no guarantee that democracy yields the wisest results.  Now, in BREXITRUMPLAND, the insane Western realm we post-truthfully inhabit, madmen and madwomen make decisions, trigger articles, cancel treaties, and deny global warming, at will - the age of the expert has turned to the age of the populist, out for nothing but raw power or personal gain.

I am not making a moral comparison between an armed killer and a president or prime minister. Our politicians, at this stage, have not crossed that rubicon....

But let us hope that Brexit does not one day destroy the lives, hopes, dreams, and opportunities of tens of thousands of young British, Irish and EU citizens over the next few years. And that the new revocation of environmental protection laws in Washington DC this week does not end up destroying all life on the planet, SOMEWHERE down the crazy river.

VERY IMPORTANT PERSONS OF COLOR

CULTURE IS NOT ALL ABOUT WHAT WHITE PEOPLE SAY OR DO

Last week saw the deaths of TS Eliot and John Lennon... now imagine that media fuss. Well, what did happen? In fact, Derek Walcott and Chuck Berry died.

Now consider what actually happened... There was a lot of fuss; obituaries... AND THEN... sort of not all that much.

Certainly not the wailing lamentation when Bowie died... or even Ted Hughes...

I am not saying the media and Western cultural machines are organisationally racist, but there is something wrong with the omelettes in Denmark, when arguably the greatest poet of color of the 20th century dies followed by ONLY THE GOLDARN INVENTOR OF ROCK AND ROLL - and there is no world-shaking sorrow and recognition that SOME OF THE GREATEST ART AND CULTURE is made by non-white folks.

Just saying...

Because Walcott and Berry, for all their human weaknesses, were universal geniuses in their fields. Their deaths were not just sad or notable - they were SEISMIC.

Now imagine they were white... we'd have TIME magazine covers for weeks. Or am I missing something?