Competition Results 2019

Trim Poetry Competition 2019 
Winning Poem

Scattering the Fieldfares

They search for food, beaks strong,

curved up to a sharp barb near the tip,

I count them, fifteen, record it

in my notebook, ready the camera.

A little girl bursts from the middle distance,

loud, laughing, the birds spooked, fly away

to line far off branches, to populate

hedgerows, she has rearranged the scene.

She tears through the fenland's open expanse,

a body of urgency, conquering without invading.

Her mother comes into view, a few steps behind

but the girl is stretching her lead easily.

It forces the parent to quicken her pace,

adjust yet again the space between them.

Catching up this time she throws the girl

up into an air of giggles, nature watches.

Soon when they are both dots on the horizon,

I resume my position in the hide, to wait.

The fieldfares return, they land, probe

the disturbed earth for fresh food, worms

drawn by the noise. The birds pluck out

the wriggling pinks to impale them on larders

of thorns or branches or barbwire we’ve left,

twisted now for their purpose,

for joy is a distraction, when your winter is fed

by a murderous spring.

Glen Wilson

Poetry Competition Shortlist 2019

The Ortolan Eater                        Ruth Quinlan
Camera Lesson                            Frank Farrelly
Lost Mornings                               Eamon McGuinness
The Obstetrician's Waiting Room Catriona Clutterbuck
Scattering the Fieldfares               Glen Wilson
Hefenfelth                                     Maria Isakova Bennett
Shadow Mirror                              K.S. Moore
Riptide                                          Amanda Bell
Eastern Ghouta                            Patrick Lodge
Hansheen's Gardens                    Patrick Deeley