Spectator competition winners: ‘This day is called the Feast of Tony Blair…’

The invitation for poems making the case for a national commemoration day for a person or thing of your choice brought in a varied and entertaining entry. While Alanna Blake championed the dandelion, there were also impassioned calls for days that high-five Thomas Crapper, Doris Day and the tent. I, for one, would happily celebrate a Tom Waits day with Adrian Fry. The winners below take £25 each. Bill Greenwell pockets £30.

Bill Greenwell Bring us the day of the dodo, The day of the passenger pigeon, That their memories never corrode, oh Let’s cheer them, and more than a smidgen:

Let’s praise those whose very long luck Receded to zilch and to zippo: The quagga, the Amsterdam duck, The bluebuck, the tiny dwarf hippo,

The great auk they killed on St Kilda, The red rail, and slim Wimmer’s shrew, All dead for a ducat, a guilder, Like the broad-faced and pale potoroo.

Though the gracile opossum’s extinct, Let us sift our remembrance’s urn: All creatures’ misfortunes are linked — Don’t forget.