In Competition No. 3332 you were invited to supply, in verse form, a retraction of beliefs previously believed in passionately.
You weren’t obliged to step into the shoes of a real poet but many chose to and some smart, entertaining about-turns included Robert Schechter’s ‘Palinode on a Grecian Urn’:
‘Truth is beauty,’
I said smugly,
but lived to find
that truth is ugly.
Other standout performers included Janine Beacham, George Simmers and Alex Steelsmith, and they were unlucky to miss out on a place in the winners’ enclosure. Those entries that made the final cut are printed below and earn their authors £25.
The world is charged with grandeur we applaud,
The sheen and perfume of its sky, sea, soil.
To all that drones is nature’s spree the foil.
Our world’s most ordinary when most odd.
Theistic explanations, though, defraud
When we to truth aspire to live loyal,
So shrug off any supernatural coil,
Acknowledge that our former faith was flawed.
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