Lucy Vickery

Competition | 6 August 2011

Any questions

issue 06 August 2011

‘To ______, or not to ______, that is the question…’ In Competition No. 2707 you were invited to fill in the blanks and continue for up to a further 15 lines.
The challenge elicited a topical response from many competitors — ‘to hack or not to hack…’ agonised George Simmers — and dilemmas of the digital age loomed large too: ‘To tweet or not to tweet… Can fourteen times ten characters ever tell a tale…’ (Jenny Lowe).
Tim Raikes, Carolyn Thomas-Coxhead and Elizabeth Bullen were unlucky losers. The winners, printed below, get £25 each. The extra fiver is D.A. Prince’s.

To drink or not to drink: that is the question.
Whether to down one’s units all at once
In one sweet session of outrageous booze
Or eek them out in thimblefuls — small sips
Through meanly measured days. To count, record  —
Oh God! And by addition to prolong
Our temperate time to drag along like death
From over-moderation.  That’s no life.






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