Everybody loves a winner, that’s for
sure, and the poetry world’s no different, though winners create losers too.
Certain losers could complain bitterly,
seething with resentment, that they’re being ignored by major awards, and they
could set up an important poetry prize for poems that are unsuitable for competitions.
Or they could launch a subtle coup and take over an existing award. Of course, they’d
also have to name judges who have been ignored up till now.
But then, once the winning poems had
been chosen, others would inevitably kick back against the decision and generate
an alternative award for the poems that hadn’t been selected. Or launch yet another
coup. With a new batch of judges. Starting all over again. And
again. And again. Just as generation follows generation, establishment follows
establishment.
Or we could read, write and explore
beyond prizes and awards, relying on our own tastes and judgements instead of invoking
the Emperor’s New Clothes on a regular basis…
The recent row about a plagiarist being awarded a prize in a poetry
competition has troubled me for a week or two. Obviously, the basic
principle is that n...
Yay!!
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