Adjudicator Clare Best has awarded this year’s Frogmore Poetry Prize to Margaret Wilmot for her poem ‘The hands’ part’. Margaret was born in Berkeley and attended the University of California. She taught English in the Mediterranean and New York before moving to Sussex in 1978, where she continued to teach. Her poetry has appeared in various British magazines including Acumen, ARTEMIS poetry, The Frogmore Papers, Magma, Oxford Poetry, The Rialto, and The North. Smiths Knoll published a pamphlet in 2013 entitled Sweet Coffee and The High Window published her collection – Man Walking on Water with Tie Askew – in 2019. She is represented in Poetry South East 2021.
The hands’ part by Margaret Wilmot
He puts the chisel down, surveys
the window
emerged out of the wood,
almost a porthole
(he with no home port)
String it, and it might play – no,
not even in his dreams –
he sweeps up chips
makes black tea
sands, for days
One evening rubs a small disc
silken
to wire in that space his eye keeps
slipping through
Runners-up for the Prize were Stephen Keeler (Ullapool) and Mike Barlow (Lancaster). Poems by Mike Barlow (again), K I Colombus, Cróna Gallagher, Marion Hobday, Vanessa Lampert, Nick Pearson and Anne Stewart were shortlisted.
All shortlisted poems will be published in number 98 of The Frogmore Papers (September 2021), available for £5.00 (post free) from The Frogmore Press, 21 Mildmay Road, Lewes BN7 1PJ. Please email frogmorepress@gmail.com for details of how to pay by BACS or PayPal.