Page 3 - eMuse Vol.9 No.05_Classical

NATURE AND

PLACE The Front Line

POETRY of the Fight

COMPETITION

2020

The Rialto working in association with the RSPB, BirdLife Interna-
tional and the Cambridge Conservation Initiative
Poems are invited that deal with any aspect of nature and place –
these terms will be given a wide interpretation by the judge. There’s a conga line of cheering and it’s necklaced around the earth,
Centred squarely on the heroes at Corona’s virulent birth,
Closing Date May 1st 2020. Clapping hands in celebration… with pots and pans in syncopation
PRIZES In heartfelt adoration… an enduring grandstanding ovation… for
1st prize – £1000 the Front Line of the Fight.
2nd prize – £500
3rd prize – £250 As the virus travelled from the east, then westward, north and south,
Enveloping the world at large, invisible hand to mouth,
ADDITIONAL PRIZES As fear unfurled her archers and her arrows hit their mark,
A personal tour with Mark Cocker of his most cherished wildlife With their armour piercing alchemy and the face of ironbark.
places in East Anglia.
MARK COCKER is one of Britain’s most celebrated writers on As scientists dance to the petri rock… to hold back the seconds on
nature. His most recent book, Our Place, is essential reading for the Doomsday Clock
all environmentalists. He is also author of Birds and People, the Medicos storm the vortex, mindful now of both,
award winning Crow Country, and of Birds Britannica. He writes The threat to their personal safety and their Hippocratic oath,
and broadcasts regularly in national media and his column in The Treating the afflicted in offset and make-shift spaces.
Guardian has run for more than 30 years.* And their masks are not sufficient to stunt the fear that floods
*The prize does not include the cost of travel or accommodation. their faces.
JUDGE Day and night the tides unceasing and the king tides are increasing,
Pascale Petit The world’s a crippled airship and fears on board that flight
Pascale Petit’s seventh collection, Mama Amazonica (Bloodaxe, As our hearts align with the conga line at The Front Line of the Fight.
2017), won the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize 2018 And the cheer extends down that conga line, and its echoes are
– the first time a poetry book won this prize for a work of fiction, just as intense,
non-fiction or poetry best evoking the spirit of a place. It was also For the paramedics, the police, the ambulance and the trinity of
shortlisted for the Roehampton Prize and was a Poetry Book Soci- Defence,
ety Choice. Her eighth collection, Tiger Girl, due from Bloodaxe in Down the chains in food and fibre and where teams make utilities
2020, won a Royal Society of Literature ‘Literature Matters’ Award tick
while in progress. Four of her earlier collections were shortlisted To the mandatory lone shelf stacker and that cheeky checkout chick.
for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Petit is a recipient of a Cholmondeley
Award and in 2018 was elected as an RSL Fellow. We salute them all at this place in time as our loud cheers resonate
You can submit up to six poems in one batch, the entry fee for the As the paralysis of the pandemic packs down to consolidate
first poem is £7 and includes an administration fee, the fee for Is it time to remake and reshape our world as the Dow Jones sags
and dips?
each subsequent poem in the batch is £4. For we’ve heard the clip of the horses’ hooves to the beat of the
If you wish to submit more than six poems you will need to make a Apocalypse.
second submission which will include a second administration fee.
Please note we require poems to be sent as either as a Adobe PDF And if there really is a God… and I think most times there might,
or a Microsoft Word .doc or a .docx. Please paste all your poems That he took his time and made a captain’s pick and he pretty
into one file which you can upload on the submission page on Sub- much got it right
mittable after you’ve made your payment. Please retain all emails When He handpicked that halo of heroes… for The Front Line of
from Submittable regarding your submission and transaction. the Fight.
If you have any queries regarding the competition please contact Robert Raftery,
matt.howard@therialto.co.uk Australia’s Picture Writer©
March 29, 2020

See a superb performance of Robert’s poem
by Danny McMaster on https://youtu.be/V3nHinEYdxs

May 2020 eMuse 3