Spectator competition winners: poems inspired by the Shipping Forecast

The call for poems inspired by the Shipping Forecast drew an entry that was funny, poignant and varied, in both content — cricket, adultery, the choppy waters of Brexit — and form (haiku, sonnet, villanelle…). Life-saver, lullaby, poetic reminder of our maritime heritage, the Shipping Forecast celebrated its 150th anniversary this year. Charlotte Green has described it as the nearest she ever came to reading poetry on air; Carol Ann Duffy ended her poem ‘Prayer’ with the lines ‘Darkness outside. Inside, the radio’s prayer —/ Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre’; and Seamus Heaney wrote a beautiful sonnet, ‘The Shipping Forecast’. Joe Houlihan’s entry — ‘The general synopsis at 1100/ Shopping trip with spouse, new low expected./ Iceland, Tesco, Aldi/ Fare: good’ — brought to mind the clever Shipping Forecast parodies on David Quantick and Daniel Maier’s Radio 4 sketch show One: ‘And now with the time approaching 5 pm/ It’s time for the mid-life crisis forecast…/Forties; restless: three or four./