Poet’s choice

In Competition No. 2843 you were given a list of poets’ surnames — motion, bridges, wilde, gray, cope, hood, burns and browning — and asked to incorporate them into a poem or piece of prose. I gave you scope for showing off by inviting you to cram in extra names should you choose to. The award for class swot has to go to Albert Black, who pulled off the phenomenal feat of shoehorning 52 names into his entry.

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Brendan O’Neill

The moment in the ‘grooming gangs’ debate that shamed Jess Phillips

A nod to Frank McDonald, whose entry to another competition gave me the idea for this. Basil Ransome-Davies takes the bonus fiver; his fellow winners pocket £25 each.

The bridge that burns can be the best of bridges.
A pound of hope won’t buy an ounce of luck.
Try Scotland, though you’ll have to cope with midges.
When rumbled, keep in motion, pass the buck.
 
Gray goes with everything, so gray is good.
Shun soup at lunch, in England or elsewhere.
Where students live there goes the neighbourhood.
Goals by Ronaldo usually show flair.
 
Sol’s fine for browning — and for melanomas.
Go careful on the wilder shores of love.
The ‘wine-dark’ sea’s an epithet of Homer’s
When pouring caustic soda, wear a glove.
 
I’m told I’m good with words, but what are words
worth
?
Do these precepts make you strong or give you hope
By imparting sense and wisdom? Not a turd’s worth.
You want enlightenment? Go ask the pope.
Basil Ransome-Davies
 
Can your heart cope with wild emotion

And all the bridges that it burns?
To you, are words worth such devotion
As silvering sun from gray frost earns?
Does every lark in every pie
That’s browning in your oven sing,
Or spread its hardy wings to fly?
Then poetry might be your thing.
 
Is nakedness a more complete
Disguise than hood and cloak and mask?
Do your swift feet pound out a beat
That knows what dance and dancer ask?
Does the strong spear you shake at summer
Keep open darling buds of spring?
Can graves make you both gay and glummer?
Then poetry might be your thing.