Back in December 2011, I read a news article on WOL about a national poetry competition run in conjunction with the Leigh and Wigan Words literary festival.  The core theme was the local environment, specifically Greenheart regional park, and the development of previously industrial land to provide beautiful green spaces for visitors to enjoy.  Having spent many happy hours strolling around areas such as Haigh country park, Pennington Flash and the Three Sisters, I was intrigued and decided to enter. 

Although I had previously submitted work to publishers, I had never entered a competition before, so carefully pored over the entry details and set about crafting a piece.  Countless edits later, I submitted my finished poem, not seriously expecting anything to come of it.  When I received a letter informing me I had won a prize and was invited to the prize-giving ceremony at Haigh Hall, I was shocked, surprised, and beyond delighted.

Finally the date rolled around, and on Wednesday 18 April, myself and my partner Bob Kettle attended the prize-giving in our best bib and tucker, at the impressive Haigh Hall, in the grounds of Haigh country park. Attendees included Elaine Booth-Leigh in her capacity as host of the Poetry Society’s Wigan Stanza group, John Darby, Christine Yates, Mark Mace Smith, Louise Fazackerly, Michael Hunt, chairman of the Leigh and Wigan Words Together literary festival, Gillian Forrester, Frances Parkinson, John O’Neil, chairman of the Greenheart board, Martin Purcell, board co-ordinator, Joan Blackburn, and many others.

We enjoyed several beautiful songs by the ever-expanding Wigan Community Choir, now at 100 members!  John O’Neil then gave a rousing speech about the development of Greenheart Regional Park.  Next up was our friend, and regular solo act support to Bob’s band Merry Hell, Pauline Blackburn, who turned in a perfect acoustic set of three songs.

Slam champion Mark Mace Smith performed a poem he had written with a group of disadvantaged youths, followed by Louise Fazackerly with a poem she takes into school workshops, and then it was prize-giving time!  In reverse order, the winners were:

Third prize, £200: Laura Taylor (A Northern Delight)

Second prize, £400: Bethany Whittle (The Hour Between Dog and Woolf)

First prize, £1,000: Helen Kay (Pennington Flash)

All three poems were very different in style and content, and I do hope that some WOL members will get the chance to read them when they appear in the local press, as both Helen’s and Bethany’s were fantastic and totally deserving of first and second place. 

I asked Bethany and Helen how they felt about being placed. Helen said: “'I am thrilled to win a prize based upon such a wonderful project as Greenheart. The project aims to 'heal' the landscape and also to encourage good health for humans. I wanted to bring those two ideas together. The flash is a wonderful place to watch nature, have a day out, reflect on life or to inspire.”

Bethany said: “ I really enjoyed writing this piece - the Greenheart theme was an imaginative spark. It got written because I couldn't sleep one night in winter, and wanted to make something that was gothic, a bit disgusting, and full of spiky edges.”  I can confirm that Bethany’s poem is all of these things, and more!

Judge Daljit Nagra, a Forward prize-winner for his collection, Look, We Have Coming to Dover!, said: “I thoroughly enjoyed reading all the entries. I felt they offered a narrative on a specific place that was sometimes humorously explored but more often with earnest conviction.  I enjoyed the passion and the drama that thoughts about a place inspired for the entrants. A strong sense of concern for the environment pervaded the entries as a whole.  The landscape was frequently the central character struggling with industrial change; this struggle led many entrants to use the elegiac form for capturing what had been lost.  Some poems expressed outrage whilst some others celebrated loss by momentarily reviving what had been lost.  Many poems were charged and enthused by a political rigour.  The entries showed how poetry can have a place in holding our decision makers to account. The best poems held the poetic line with sufficient freshness of imagery to warrant re-reading.  Their drama and sensual detail stayed with me long after I had read them.”

It is understood that the winning entries will be used in publicity for Greenheart Park, including a video of the winners performing their poems against a backdrop of images of Greenheart. Watch this space!

It was an amazing night, and I am still astonished at having been placed in a national competition, so to all you poets out there who won’t enter competitions, or think you don’t stand a chance, I say this: if you’re not in it, you can’t win it!  Get scribbling!

Photograph shows, from left, prizewinners Bethany Whittle, Laura Taylor, and Helen Kay