Spectator competition winners: a kiwi fruit for Emily Dickinson

In Competition No. 3194, inspired by Tony Harrison’s poem ‘A Kumquat for John Keats’, you were invited to write a poem of that title but substituting your choice of poet and a piece of fruit. It was a palmary entry, so I’ve made space for an extra winner. 

Hats off, all round, and £20 each to those printed below.

On Wenlock Edge you stand distraught, Your brow compressed, your features taut,And weep to contemplate the fate Of creatures in a fallen state.  To you the lover’s solemn vowIs frail as blossoms on the bough,While tunes that stir the patriot’s blood Leave young men perished in the mud.  Because your verses tip the scaleUnevenly to hopes that failOr ruined dreams, may I upliftYour sad heart with a special gift?  Accept, to balance your purview,This bowl of cherries just for you,As consolation for mankindWhen mortal matters touch the mind.Basil Ransome-Davies

Have an avocado, Henry, From Aisle Twenty-Two in Fresco, In a tray of sculpted cardboard Double-wrapped in sturdy plastic (Though its alligator casing Might withstand a bolt of lightning That the Shawnees’ Animikii, Animikii, Thunder Spirit, Sends across the sacred mountains), Ready for your great consumption Possibly with prawns within it, Fresco prawns kept fresh by freezer, Ready stripped of their intestine, Do not eat the black vein, Henry, Whip up mayonnaise and ketchup, Dear-oh-dear, your pear’s rock solid.