Our Day in the Sun: Inpress Turns Ten in London
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Our Poetry Garden Market, outside Foyles on London's Southbank on 15th September 2012, was a roaring success. There were inspiring readings on the Poetry Library stage by Melissa Lee-Houghton, Lotte Kramer, John Wedgwood Clarke, Ira Lightman, Kim Moore, Hannah Lowe and Rhian Edwards, plus drop-in workshops with the Poetry School. And the sun shone all day on our market lawn, especially apt for our 'Indian Summer' poetry competition: scroll down for the winning entries by Ellen Phethean, Avril Joy and Fiona Ritchie Walker, who read their poems on stage as dusk fell and the wine flowed. |
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Third Place - 'Late Song' by Ellen Phethean The Tyne is still enough for clear reflection; September’s offering an Indian Summer I cycle through the quiet afternoon. Here we are again, an end of sorts, autumn’s slow fall into dark. Yet the sun’s a hand upon my back the river smells are real. A curlew picks along the low tide mark, singing its lonely tune. Cormorants dive, rings ripple out to nothing. Second Place - 'September, After Rain' by Avril Joy After rain, sun. A starling on the shed roof fans her wings to dry. On the horizon turning trees wait, rain lingers on the last of the acer sparks the tips of bamboo, beads a washing line. A shallow thread of water glints in the bird bath, the starling flies off and the garden is empty. A lattice of ageing shadows cross the lawn, dahlias sit alone, the rose flowers for a second time; smaller in the late-flowering heat its petals wilt on gravel like shingle on a beach, better than sand, able to separate and shine, no moulded grains clinging to the cusp of summer and beyond. September mornings, were the best: you behind the wheel, shimmering like the flat, wet road ahead; a sudden heat, starting out, everything made fresh. Our own poetry podium: (below, left-right) Ellen Phethean (3rd), Fiona Ritchie Walker (1st), Avril Joy (2nd). Read on for the winning poem! |
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