Spectator competition winners: poems about procrastination

In Competition No. 3306, you were invited to submit a poem about procrastination.

Procrastination looms large in Out of Sheer Rage, Geoff Dyer’s hilarious account of his attempt to write a study of D.H. Lawrence, and it struck me as an excellent topic for a competition. As Samuel Johnson wrote, the tendency to put things off is ‘one of the general weaknesses’ that ‘prevail to a greater or lesser degree in every mind’. The assignment did indeed strike a chord, attracting a large entry that was witty and technically adroit. Commiserations to Alex Steelsmith, C. Paul Evans, David Silverman and Frank McDonald who missed out on a spot in the winning line-up by a whisker. The winners, which include Gail White’s nod to Robert Herrick, are printed below and earn their authors £25 apiece.

You say hither, I say thither,
Time will tell, and wait a while:
It’s in my blood, delay and dither,
Yet I’ll get there, tortoise-style.