Congratulations from Poetry Ireland and the Poetry Project

Due to the extremely high quality of poetry submitted, alongside winner Therese L. Broderick with ‘Due Pedali‘, Poetry Ireland also highly commended two additional poems and commended a further seven.

Highly commended poetry: 
(in no particular order)

Congratulations to: Noelle Lynskey

With: ‘Somewhere Else’

Written in response to: Somewhere Else by Anita Groener

Somewhere Else

Here behind
Two closed eyes
The world of dreams
In whorls of thought
Both whirl and whoosh
In harmony
With breath-
Then beat.
In and out
Around the clock

Not awake
Not asleep
Just falling slowly
Off the edge
Where random daily
Images , a chair,
My pen
Just
drop
Into some-
where else.

Congratulations to: Kevin C. McHugh

With: ‘BENT SPINDLED AND MUTILATED’

Written in response to: Overview by Rhona Byrne

BENT SPINDLED AND MUTILATED
“I apologize for calling. I meant to talk to you in person yesterday to say we won’t be needing you anymore …”

I’d witnessed this scene before—
the lawful espials of someone else
deceived and cleaning out her desk,
rifling the now de-filed cabinets
for trinkets and personal effects,
then to be drummed unvoiced
to the door and dumped, leaving
Nothing in the wake of her passing.
There is no covert contrail
of eau de cologne or telltale musk
from face flushed and burning
or rapid, labored inhalations,
the thread of shallow breaths.

Still it comes as a shock, a betrayal
of naïvely unrequited loyalty so
that suddenly I am one
with other coin-tossed casualties
of Global aggregations in which
no one and nothing personal counts—
such liaisons being, after all, consensual.

None and never the less I am
branded by my innocent shame
more rightly borne by them
and left feeling as if I should be the one
to apologize for making love badly,
for performing poorly without the
requisite, corporate aphrodisiac.

We are not LinkedIn. We never were.
Your back was always turned,
your fingers forever crossed—
paramour not lover that you were—
consuming me in a loose consummation
that turns the tables and leaves me
here forlorn like the cuckold.

Was it ever good for you?

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Commended poetry: 
(in no particular order)

Congratulations to: Denise Nagle

With: ‘Anatomy of a Family’

Written in response to: An tAm Marfach ina Mairimid by Seán Cotter

Congratulations to: Susan Muehlberg

With: ‘SURRENDER’

In a hushed requite by Liam O’Callaghan

Congratulations to: Frank Golden

With: ‘THE WORLD IN OPPOSITION’

Beyond The Flock by Aideen Barry

Congratulations to: Breda Joyce

With: ‘The Void’

Written in response to: A Video for War, a poem by Enda Wyley by Susan Tiger

Congratulations to: John O’Malley

With: ‘IF IT WAS UP TO ME’

Written in response to: Another Way by Jasper Wood

Congratulations to: Melissa Burr Thomas

With: ‘Well Met’

Written in response to: Setting by Martin Healy

Congratulations to: Pippa Little

With: ‘White Horses’

Written in response to: The Long Lane by Poppy Hunt

We’d like, once again, to thank all who took part in the competition, the standard was incredibly high, and we very much enjoyed reading and considering all the poems submitted.