In Competition No. 2791 you were invited to provide a poem in praise of a country other than the United Kingdom.
Thanks to John Whitworth, who suggested the topic. It generated a wave of love-thy-neighbourliness, albeit with an undercurrent of mischief, that is a welcome antidote to the prevailing mood of xenophobia.
I liked Ray Kelley’s hymn to Australia — ‘Oz, Oz, glorious Oz,/ Got-the-lot country if ever there was!’ — and was equally impressed by Nigel Mace, Rob Stuart and Charles Curran. The winners, below, earn £25. Basil Ransome-Davies takes £30.
Michael Myers Leslie Nielsen
Gotta love ’em, haven’t you?
Raymond Burr and Leonard Cohen
David Cronenberg woo-hoo.
Céline Dion Joni Mitchell
Donald Sutherland Lorne Green
Not forgetting Mary Pickford
Icons of the silver screen
Also Fay Wray and Jim Carrey
Gorgeous Susan Sarandon
(Cut some slack for William Shatner)
KD Lang …I could go on.
Raise the sound of jubilation.
Spread the word from here to Mars.
Hail a procreative nation —
Canada, the womb of stars!
Basil Ransome-Davies
Let’s wonder at but set aside
The symphonies and lieder:
Their qualities can’t be denied
And need no special pleader.
But when we view a later date,
The twentieth-century story,
What cause is there to celebrate,
What earthly claim to glory?
Yet by the century’s end there rose
From hells of self-sown fire
A settled state that thrives and grows,
No longer a pariah.
To overcome the Nazi shame
And unify the nation,
Deutschland demands ungrudged acclaim
For peaceful re-creation.
W.J. Webster
Across La Manche, sud-ouest de Thanet,
The finest country on the planet,
(Not counting here of course), la France,
Compound de cuisine et romance,
La France, le plus beau pays du monde,
Une nation witty yet profonde.
Tous les enfants can quote Descartes
Which shows how ils sont toujours smart.
Très cultivés, leurs films et plays
Deserving of the highest praise,
Likewise leurs romans need no boost,
Stendhal, Balzac, Flaubert, Proust,
Les jolies femmes, quel sex-appeal!
Les hommes, quel confidence et style!
Ils even jouent le criquet, yes!
Although (hélas!) sans much success.
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