Friday 24th April 2009
Congratulations to Paul Merchant (ex WW 2003-08) whose poem "Three Guesses" has been awarded 3rd prize in the 2009 Tower Poetry Competition, the UK's most prestigious award for 16 to 18 year old aspiring poets.
Three Guesses
It's the one where those with goatees
and Gauloises sit in cafés, and agonise
and smoke. The light shifts; a man sits
in the corner, in blue. His mind is flying
on a plane to Japan, writing deep novels,
locked in embrace. The pen on his table lies
bolted to the metal. The last number he dialled
was one number too short - a digit lost
between cortex and fingers.
The one where fingers teeter on steel.
The bridge is suspended. Feet in Converse
quiver. Black jeans and nails. Below: blue, fading.
Behind: nightmares. Out front, light in javelins.
This time, earphones won't slip him the answers.
No blocking, no late-night retreats to that room.
No ears for the thunder of thoughts
or raging. Move now. There's no intermediate stage.
The time she pointed out through the door -
woodwork and carpet smelling of school,
sunset down behind walls slapped in blue.
She pointed - 'Drink?' It was nothing more,
perhaps, but you would have killed to be
with her. This worming grey thing (got it?)
and its spongy barrier - the hole in your head,
the way you wander now along Frost's lines,
head turned past your shoulders.
The Tower competition is open to all sixth-form students in UK secondary schools and colleges. Many of the competition's past winners have gone on to achieve further acclaim for their writing in other competitions or in the publishing world. The 2009 competition theme was 'Doubt'. The record number of entrants, all born between 1990 and 1993 and representing every region in the UK, were inspired by the topic which included many diverse and thought-provoking interpretations including the use of sea and fog, hunger and juries, playing cards and bus stops as well as the inevitable, Thomas.
The judges included Jane Draycott, a UK-based poet with a particular interest in sound art, and collaborative and digital work, Daljit Nagra, winner of the Forward Poetry Prize in 2004 and 2007, and poet and lecturer Peter McDonald, Director of Tower Poetry.