Ver Poets Open Competition 2021

The results of the 2021 competition are given below:

First Prize: Gratitude by Vanessa Lampert

Second Prize: The Translation of Breath by Ilse Pedler

Third Prize: Psittacula Krameri by Justine Knowles

Highly Commended:

• The Feral Herd of Swona, Orkney by Ken Evans
• Memory by Christine Bury
• On Becoming a Chair by Fiona Ritchie Walker
• Voyagers by Pamela Job
• Hard Water by Selwyn Veater
• It’s wonderful to be alive, again! by Robert Fife

Commended:

• The Priest Hole Maker by Keith Chandler
• They say that octopuses change colour… by Sara Levy
• The Island Surveyor by John Lancaster
• Scintilla by S.K.Grout
• Roots by Amy Malloy
• Picking up My Grandfather by Paul Stephenson

Selected:

• Self Portrait …by Ken Evans
• Talking with Dad…. by Ken Evans
• Shrugs by Margaret Eddershaw
• Moonflowers by Christine Bury
• Anointing by Fiona Ritchie Walker
• After the Flood … by Fiona Ritchie Walker
• Bridle by Diana Cant
• Old Zek by Ian Heffernan
• Wash Day by Sylvia Banham
• On finding a small waterfall by Sam Cassels
• All I could offer by Robert Edward Gurney
• Sunlight House by Marion Oxley
• Musing on Rembrandt… by Jeanette Burton
• His Hair by Catherine Edmunds
• Alphabet City by Katriona Campbell
• The Honeyeaters by Ben Verinder
• Gravity by Sue Spiers
• ‘What is it like to be a bat?’ by Becky Cherriman
• Pépé Dalle by Sharon Black
• Here by Sue Leigh
• In plain sight by Amy Malloy
• Scanner by Phil Kirby
• Valedictory by Phil Kirby
• Digging the Canal by Christopher James

Our competition anthology, The Ver Prize 2021, includes all of the above poems and the judge André Mangeot’s report. All those included will receive a copy. Further copies can be ordered by sending a cheque for £4 (plus £1 p&p), made payable to Ver Poets, to 181 Sandridge Road, St Albans, Herts, AL1 4AH.