Peter Dix Memorial Prize for Poetry, 2015

Congratulations to Iyobosa Bello-Asemota, winner of this year's Senior Poetry Prize, named after Old Columban Peter Dix (trophy by Joseph Sloan pictured above), who earlier this term also won the Shakespeare Prize.  

The judge, Mr Canning, comments:

"The entrants had to write between two to five poems inspired by Place, People, Promises.
Iyobosa's collection of poems was written in a very mature style that belies her years. Her poems were marked by carefully weighted language, maturely crafted shape and subtle shifts in tone and nuance."

Here are two of Iyobosa's entries:-



The Man Called Hope
 
Slowly, he rises
unsteady on his new feet
but still, he rises
—former bedmate of defeat.
His chariot of change lights up the horizon

And so it grows
—the dream he dared not share
but still it grows.
Flags wave everywhere
as the giant awakens. The wind of change blows

More than a man,
is the man called hope.
More than one man,
is the Change he invoked.
The man called hope is the hope of the land.


My People Esau
 
My people Esau,
you sell your tomorrow for today’s gain.
This is your fatal flaw.
Pleasures fade when faced with far-flung pain.
While mother bleeds tears
In vain, the salty sweat of many years:
She the giant no more,
She the eagle unable to soar.
Let this day bring death or resurrection
But, if the wages of resurrection be death,
Let death beget redemption.