Poetry Archive Now Wordview 2022: Sunday March 11, 2022 a child is
by Tom Kelly
I saw a child on TV coming from Ukraine, arriving in Poland and being cared for. My father was a German POW in WWW 2. I saw my father and this child side-by-side. The poem almost wrote itself.
Poetry Archive Now Wordview 2022: Sunday March 11, 2022 a child is
carried into Krakow’s railway station,
holding back crying, sensing their mother’s fear.
My father in 1940, is a German POW,
working on a farm he finds black bread under his barrow
left by the near-starving Polish farm labourers.
The memory lived to his last breath.
Now a boy grabs his sister’s hand,
heading for a town they cannot pronounce.
A woman desperately holds two terrified children,
broken by fear; their world splintered.
I hear my father cry, ‘not again’ over and over and on
Sunday March 11, 2022 a child is
A special thank you to our WordView 2021 poets.
Chair of the Judging Panel, Joelle Taylor, says: "We were thrilled by the range and scope of the poetry and techniques explored throughout the wide submissions. I have said before that to write a poem is an act of resistance but to then perform it as well is a revolution. It takes a bravery to face the page, and a further one to stand by your words. While we’ve all become more used to filming ourselves over the pandemic, all of us were deeply aware of that courage.
Often when on a judging panel we find ourselves faced with impossible decisions. If you can imagine, after sifting, it’s as though a hundred people have crossed the finish line at precisely the same moment but there are only three medals. How do we come to these decisions? Through the objective unpicking of the poems, through our individual passions, through a consideration of narratives, especially those lesser heard. We come to it through uneasy negotiation and through heart, and above all through our shared love and understanding of the possibilities of poetry.
Our honest applause goes to all who submitted, and I hope you can hear it.
Congratulations to those we selected. We hope to see you all again soon."
See the collectionWatch the full Wordview 2022 playlist