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Wildlife Words - Poetry Competition Results
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Wildlife Words - The Winning Words
February 2013
We are delighted with the response to our second open poetry competition which closed on 16th January. There were 53 entries on the topic of wildlife and conservation. Last year’s winner, Isobel Thrilling, kindly agreed to judge them for us.
The competition raised £163 to support our work but more importantly, encouraged contributors to record their appreciation for the natural world.
The winning poem, “Winnowing (for Richard Mabey)” by Jackie Bennett, is reproduced below and has been published by the Trust in a small anthology - Wildlife Words volume 2 with a selection of other entries. A full list of poems include in the new anthology is listed at the bottom of this page.
First Prize: Winnowing (for Richard Mabey) by Jackie Bennett
Second Prize: Barn for Sale - Jennifer Hunt
Third Prize: Umbellifera - Hilary Jupp
Highly commended entries:
- Fifteen Ravens - Mark Totterdell
- Owls Feather - Anita Thorpe
- The Wild Cats! - Lena Walton
- Straight - Gabriel Griffin-Hall
- The Gatekeeper - Philip Burton
- Summer Contract - Eleanor Vale
Winnowing (for Richard Mabey) - Jackie Bennett
The nature writer wrote: The owl winnowed the corn
But the critics said: “Do owls winnow? We think not.”
And the writer was tormented
For he had meant to capture, not the owl
but the essence of owl.
So the writer fretted and fussed
Trying this word and that,
to better the image of owl.
The reader, who also loved owl,
Read the words and watched the bird
hunting the field on a dusky evening.
Strong in flight, noiseless,
the owl made its way up and down the rows of wheat,
now and then alighting in the fork of a tree
to consider the merits, or otherwise, of winnowing.
While below, the power of the passing wings
had caused a movement in the air
The slightest rustle of the stems
hardly felt.
Then a grain fell slowly to earth,
the chaff blown away on the breeze
Included in Wildlife Words Volume 2 are :
- Winnowing - Jackie Bennett
- The Last of the Few - Dawn Lawrence
- Garden Joys Too - Heather Buswell
- Picture This - Dorothy Waite
- The Wild Cats! - Lena Walton
- Fifteen Ravens - Mark Totterdell
- Soon They Will Fledge - Ruth Bies
- Barn for Sale - Jennifer Hunt
- Owls Feather - Anita Thorpe
- Autumn roar - Eugene Butterworth
- Dormouse awakes - Jennifer Hunt
- The Hunter - Ruth Bies
- Umbellifera - Hilary Jupp
- The Shape Of Things To Come? - Alan Carter
- Summer Contract - Eleanor Vale
- Straight - Gabriel Griffin-Hall
- The Gatekeeper - Philip Burton
- Contrasts of Autumn - Rob Hamar
- Creek Heron - Helen Boyles
Wildlife Words Volume 1 is also available from the Trust.
