{"id":1855,"date":"2025-07-04T09:55:03","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T09:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/runyourownwebsite.uk\/kingsenglishsociety\/?page_id=1855"},"modified":"2026-07-06T12:07:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T12:07:59","slug":"june-2026-poetry-competition-results","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/runyourownwebsite.uk\/kingsenglishsociety\/prizes\/june-2026-poetry-competition-results\/","title":{"rendered":"Results of June 2026 Poetry Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>The judge of our quarterly poetry competition is Dorothy Pope, the Society\u2019s Poet in Residence, who also sets the theme for each competition.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Judge\u2019s Report on the June 2026 Poetry Competition themed \u2018Statue(s)\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The theme of Statue(s) was variously interpreted as a snowman, a man keeping perfectly still or children doing so in the game of statues, stone, clay and wooden statues, statues hated, destroyed, cherished, prayed to, and Ozymandias which featured twice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A disappointing entry in terms of quality this time. There were just two which were clearly better than the rest. Praise therefore goes to \u2018Passer\u2019 by Terry Jones and \u2018Company\u2019 by Sebastian Marziano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In \u2018Passer\u2019, \u2018Statue\u2019 is interpreted as self standing still so as not to disturb a house sparrow (Passer domesticus) while it drinks and bathes at his birdbath. I question the American spelling of \u2018grey\u2019. Also, the slang phrase \u201ccome clean\u201d jars with me and diminishes the poem\u2019s grandeur. I liked \u201cbaptismal\u201d, especially as it was preceded by \u201critual\u201d and \u201cprayerful\u201d. The poem finds an echo in every reader\u2019s experience, I imagine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018Company\u2019 by Sebastian Marziano would have been an English sonnet had line 6 not lacked an iamb. Why? I particularly liked lines 3 and 11 and 12. I saw the snowman, rebuilt annually, not just as a companion but also proof of man\u2019s repeated trying again after setbacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Please note that because of the sheer volume of work, I am unable to provide feedback other than on the two winners.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Dorothy Pope<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">***************<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Passer<\/strong>     <em>winner<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That sparrow who visits the bird-bath \u2014<br>however irregular his intervals,<br>his methods have a ritual consistency:<br>a prayerful bow into the stone bowl,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">replenished more by us than by the rain;<br>watch his quick swigs and the baptismal finish;<br>he is, between sips, his own security<br>detail, eyes everywhere, till with no tell<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">he is gone, flicked away; but let me<br>come clean. It may not be the same bird<br>each time, but his doppelgangers<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">who fail to spot me, as I pause myself,<br>assume a gesture of permanence, hold it<br>in a stone figure, lined, weathered and gray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Terry Jones<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">*************<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Company<\/strong><em>     runner-up<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I built him from the weather I was in,<br>I rolled the heavy cold that wouldn't melt,<br>and pressed the whole white silence into skin,<br>a man the size of everything I'd felt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I wound my own scarf twice around his throat<br>and turned him to the window square,<br>then buttoned him inside my outgrown coat<br>and went back in to lamplight, fire, and chair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It wasn't spring that took him in the end.<br>The mild days came. The hard ground gave. He sagged<br>and all I'd built to stand for me now thinned<br>to sodden wool, spent coal, a heap of rag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And still, each year, the cold comes back around,<br>my hands begin to build him from the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Sebastian Marziano<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">*********************<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The next poetry competition will be announced here and on the Society's social media platforms on 1 September 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The judge of our quarterly poetry competition is Dorothy Pope, the Society\u2019s Poet in Residence, who also sets the theme for each competition. Judge\u2019s Report on the June 2026 Poetry Competition themed \u2018Statue(s)\u2019 The theme of Statue(s) was variously interpreted as a snowman, a man keeping perfectly still or children doing so in the game [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":691,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1855","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Results of June 2026 Poetry Competition - King&#039;s English Society<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/runyourownwebsite.uk\/kingsenglishsociety\/prizes\/june-2026-poetry-competition-results\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Results of June 2026 Poetry Competition - King&#039;s English Society\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The judge of our quarterly poetry competition is Dorothy Pope, the Society\u2019s Poet in Residence, who also sets the theme for each competition. 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