Engaging with the elements
The WM sonnet competition produced some enthralling results, says its judge, poet Alison Chisholm
Alison Chisholm
FIRST PRIZE Breaths of Time, Håkon Søreide
I’m earth and turf, I’m grit and grassy ground,
The air you breathe my body, breath and soul,
The wandering wind that gently whirls around
Two lingering lovers on their languid stroll.
I’m water sifting softly to the sea,
The rock of every crater, crag and crest;
The dawning dreamland forest’s mind is me,
My truths the trills from trembling songbird’s breast.
I am the stars, the silent silver moon;
Its mien of contemplation is my face;
I am the hearth, the heat, the sun at noon,
These specks of dust that spin though endless space.
The Cosmos breathes, then sighs its brittle rhyme:
‘There is no death, just life – and breaths of time.’
Setting a competition to find the best sonnet means engaging with a form that has been alive and kicking for over 800 years. This long tradition means that just about everything you can imagine has already been covered in the form. Is there room for more? Writing Magazine’s poets proved that there is indeed. A large entry of fascinating material arrived for adjudication, and covered a wealth of subject matter.
Quantities of poetry are always written about love, death and bereavement, perhaps because the writing can be both cathartic for the writer and a tribute to the other party. Some of these poems about the fundamental issues of life had little new to say, but others offered amazing insights into characters and situations. There was an abundance of meta poems – poems written about writing poetry – among the entries.