Summer 20-Line Poetry Competition 2024 – Results
Our latest free-to-enter poetry competition, with the loose theme of ‘Summertime’, attracted lots of brilliant poems. We are very pleased to publish the winning poem, Summervibes by Julia Myles.
Winner
Summervibes
by Julia Myles
When the walking dead of winter, suddenly say “Aaaah!”
and stretch back, unfurl and blossom in the shininess,
when the grass grows frantic in its green-speed-spurtiness
and its carpet invites roly-poly in the pile,
when children are freed from desks and routines,
and they squeal and squirt and splash each other cool,
when day-trippers pile on coaches with picnics and rain ponchos
and the driver finds a lay-by for a doze,
when the haze of sun on sand and sea makes fuzzy a whole community
and a temporary ‘happy’ has taken hold,
this summertime glow brings us all out to play:
the dejected, the hopeful, and guests
the sun shines in our darkness and ebbs it all away;
heads lift and our burdens feel lighter,
we wake with more gratitude and enjoy more simple pleasures
the heat makes manic-dashing too unbearable,
so we slow with long evenings to stroll and to laugh
as our headspace unravels its spasm,
we languish in the finest of our finely balanced planet
and the season leaves us better than we were.
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About the winner: Born a Coventry kid, Julia spent much of her life in Birmingham, working in education and community arts. She lectured in Dance at Birmingham University before moving north. In 2013 Julia was ordained in the C of E and has been a parish priest and a Hospice Chaplain. She now has a parish in Berkshire. A friend who used to teach literature was the catalyst for Julia starting to write and discovering the Arvon Foundation. Having done two or three online workshops with them she was smitten by the creative tasks. This is her first published poem.
Shortlist
Here are the entries/poets that were selected for the shortlist:
Can We Swap Houses by Sarah Powell
African Violate by Glyn Matthews
A SCOTTISH SUMMER by Marie-Therese Kielty
Summer Riverwalking by Val Church
Daisies by Julie Shackman
Gloria Sanders
In summer, the violin teacher plays Bach Sonata No. 1 in G Minor con affetto by Rebecca D. Martin
Thank you to everyone who entered. If you’d like to find out about our upcoming writing competitions – both free-to-enter and those with an entry fee such as the 1,000-Word Short Story Competition (£1,000 top prize) – as well as writing prompts, book recommendations and more, sign up to our newsletter (we send one each month and will never share your email address or any other information with anyone else).