The winning poem in our 2024 Open Poetry Competition, chosen by Kathryn Gray, was Grasshoppers by John Saddler.
Kathryn’s comment on John’s poem was as follows:
“This poem. A small work of such fragility and tenderness and yet so large and powerful that my heart ached – and ached again – to read it. As with many a terrific poem, it possesses multiple possible emotional/situational applications that a reader may use to suit the ends of their own wants or needs, but the epigraph from Ecclesiastes 12:5 indicates an intended, specific allusion to old age, and resulting decline and mortality. At the same time, the poem is a gentle call to arms about love and life and bringing meaning to both, even or especially in the face of the inevitable: ‘No time to sleep, you said.’ There is a quite particular genius at play in casting the poet-narrator and the addressee as literal grasshoppers. And speak the poem out loud – relish those delicate but decisive sonics! What sad beauty. For this reader, ‘Grasshoppers’ was the ultimate winning poem.”
Grasshoppers
'The grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail'
Ecclesiastes, 12:5
That August we sang in the brittle grass,
knew fire and famine
and the end coming soon.
Sun blazed while the earth cracked.
We rubbed along on things
scraped and scratched.
I brought dry delicacies,
and we would eat as if
a banquet was ours.
We told stories, held hands.
I awoke in the morning to your eyes.
No time to sleep, you said.
You have to take this all inside,
so you will fly, and you
will give it back.
The Kent & Sussex Poetry Society 