by Kate Birch | May 9, 2022 | News, Picks of the Month
The poem is so inspiring and makes me feel empowered As another voter put it: ‘This poem takes you by surprise…’ The title points you in one direction and then you follow it through to a completely different destination. It is for this reason, then,...
by Kate Birch | Apr 14, 2022 | News, Picks of the Month
It is spare, subtle and profound. These words that really do sum up Hiram Larew’s superb poem ‘Hardly’ and are an illustration of why it has been voted as the Pick of the Month for March 2022. Voters read his poem again and again to gauge the meaning behind his subtle...
by Kate Birch | Mar 12, 2022 | News, Picks of the Month
It almost feels like my life has been sort of summed up in verse. We are always in awe of those who speak more than one language fluently, even more so when a poet writes in their second or even third language. But we rarely see the doubts behind...
by Kate Birch | Feb 14, 2022 | Picks of the Month
… it’s so real. The movement of the poem without breath evokes exactly the situation it describes The wonderfully titled ‘A Parishioner Complains at a Parish Church Council When We Move the Time of Evensong’ by Manon Ceridwen James is the...
by Kate Birch | Jan 9, 2022 | News, Picks of the Month
So evocative and vivid Lovers of all things seaside and Blackpool pushed Abigail Flint’s ‘Self portait as Blackpool’ to the fore and she emerged as the winning Pick of the Month poet with her ‘startlingly original’ poem in what was a very close competition....
by Kate Birch | Dec 14, 2021 | News, Picks of the Month
Beautiful, evocative and hits all my senses The words ‘evocative’ and ‘beautiful’ were used over and over again to describe Subitha Baghirathan’s ‘Sari shop, Easton’ and it is for this reason and the poem’s sense of place that this vibrant work is the...