2025 Winners

Poetry listens to the heartbeat of the world and I was reminded of this with the entries for the Guernsey International Poetry Competition. These are poets, young and old, who are listening and bringing their hearts and minds to an ongoing conversation. Reading them, I felt I was hearing voices taking up different strands of the human story, rich with images, wry, wise, full of affection. Many of the winning poems look at everyday things - a dog chasing a stick, a pair of serge trousers, tadpole commas, dog biscuits, collected shells, photo-frames - while the significant action is happening elsewhere, where ashes are scattered, memories stored and lives changed. I enjoyed the unexpectedness of the treatment and subject matter, even in poems which did not travel all the way to the final list of winners. The real joy for me, not just in judging but in reading poetry at any level, is coming across the line that sings, that stays in the mind and makes me want to come back to read it again and aloud.

So thank you, Guernsey, for giving me the opportunity to judge this competition. It was a great honour and a joy.