Poetry Archive Now Wordview 2022: That Photograph of the Club

Littered across the steps, 

wing-collared cockerels 

lounge in blue and ivory, 

three thousand quid a whack 

from Ede and Ravenscroft. 

Buller buller buller. 

 

Later, dodge the bulldogs, 

crash a restaurant, suck 

its cellars dry, sing, shout, smash 

the lights, crockery, bull’s-eye windows; 

dust your dainty cuffs and leave. 

Trash it and run. 

 

That oik who wanted to join 

the club is swotting in the quad, 

so storm his room, shred his books, 

vomit on his desk. 

Buller, buller, buller— 

trash it and run. 

 

Waffle your finals, parliament next, 

join the country’s rulers. 

Shovel cash, plump the swagbag, 

fuller, fuller, fuller. 

Trash it and run, trash it and run, 

buller, buller, buller. 

Poetry Archive Now Wordview 2022 Winners

Poetry Archive Now! was established in 2020 to enable us to gather recordings from a much wider pool of talented poets from the UK and ...

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Nairn Kennedy

Nairn Kennedy is a Leeds-based poet whose work has appeared in Ambit, Orbis, Ink, Sweat & Tears, The London Magazine, Stand, The North and Under the Radar. He's twice been a prizewinner in the Ilkley Literature Festival Competition, has been longlisted in the National Poetry Competition, and commended in the Hippocrates Prize.

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
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