Hawke's Bay pumps on National Poetry Day

The whole poetry team are (from left) Neill Gordon, Peter Janes, Tessa Moffett, Rosheen Fitzgerald, Jeremy Roberts and Louise Ward.

The Bay was pumping with poetry for this year's National Poetry Day. Poets on street corners, poets with pizza, and poets captured on camera, as part of the prize for winners of the Wardini Books Poetry Competition 2022.

Entrants were invited to submit one poem that would fit on one side of an A4 sheet of paper. Entries poured in, with the most submissions in the young adult and adult categories.

The winners were filmed by legendary cinematographer Peter Janes and the film published by Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day and Wardini Books.

Judges Rosheen Fitzgerald (2019 Hawke's Bay Poetry Slam champion, professional wordsmith in poetry, analysis, journalism, biography and marketing) and Jeremy Roberts (MC at Napier Live Poets and winner of the Earl of Seacliff poetry prize 2019) had a tough job on their hands, but eventually settled on poems that felt authentic and moved them in some way. Tears were shed.

And the winners are:

Tessa Moffett, age 13, with Speaking

Oh the fear of speaking
the trembling
feeling cold
to hot
Oh the tear of speaking
A tedious silence
the gleaming eyes
Darting right back at you
Oh the fear of speaking
Oh the worried thoughts zooming
throughout your head
Oh the tear of speaking
Oh the looking side to side
Oh
the
judgment

And Neill Gordon in the adult category, with Wondering why the sun rises?

There are days
Days when he wonders why the sun rises
Does it?
Days when the whole galaxy implodes
The moon eclipses the sun
Days when that stuff - dark matter
That physicists say makes up 27% of the universe
But is never seen
Is seen
Days when he resolves to move to a lifestyle block
Or soundproof the section
To shield reality
From them next door
And it's the umpteenth time
And How many times do I
Will you please do what you've been
And we've moved onto
Heavens to Murgatroyd
Into Holy Flippin Hell, and beyond
And it's no use waiting til your father gets home
Because he is home
And it's a mess
And there are other days
When he cradles the earth
In the crook of his arm
Juggles Mars and Venus
Runs rings round Saturn
Bakes a beautiful batch of Milky Way muffins
Days when everything moves to a graceful cosmic order
When every word spoken is gentle
When he longs for a lapel mic
And outdoor speakers
So the neighbours can eavesdrop
And weep
At the tenderness of his parenting
Days when you ask
Really hard questions
Right out of the blue
But he knows the answer
And can demonstrate it
With an orange, a head of garlic and a balloon
Days when you take it upon yourself
To collect buttercups for mum
When with you on his shoulders he really is ten feet tall
When the crusts have been cut off
The broccoli banished
The undies stay clean
He's so delirious he sprinkles 100s and 1000s on top of your jam sandwich
A day when
There are no knots in the hair
No snot
No sulks
Burglars break in and vacuum
The puppy pulls all the washing off the line
And folds it neatly
An earthquake lifts every toy off the boys' bedroom floor and drops it in its allotted place
A day when he has time
To write this poem.

You can find the film on the Wardini Books Facebook page.