Second prize in our 2023 Open Poetry Competition was awarded to Listening To Two Workers Laying Insulation In Our Bungalow Loft, by Roger Hare. @RogerHare6
This is what Jonathan Edwards, our judge, said about it:
I loved this poem from the moment I first saw the way its wonderful title runs into its first line. It’s a great example of a distinctive sustained metaphor, which is so well-realised through detail, offering us a powerful and compelling way to address an important and still under-discussed subject. I loved the way the imagery of snooker was used to describe the speaker’s emotional journey. Best of all I think is the really gorgeous last stanza, which beautifully describes a return to good health. Like Lawrence’s ‘Song of a Man Who Has Come Through,’ this poem movingly tells us that it’s been there too, and that it made it through to the other side. We all need songs like this one.
The Kent & Sussex Poetry Society 