WHAT MAKES A WINNER?
What makes a winning poem? I recently went to the Hut Poetry, the last for the year, and they had a competition for the best two poems. A pair of judges sat and listened, deliberated then gave the decision. Bottles of wine were the prizes. As an audience member it was very interesting to compare what I considered were the best, and what were chosen. It reinforces that selecting a 'winner', in this case two, is so very subjective. It was not an easy job for the judges. There were so much good work on offer. And a huge variety in delivery and genre. There were light hearted narratives- there were reminisces of childhood- well observed poems that described everything from Uluru - to the simplicity of a man and his dog walking a street. In this case the detail was what grabbed the judges attention. These poems were more 'page' oriented works than delivered as spoken word. They forced you to listen...made you appreciate the wrangling of words. Often in spoken wor...