21 July 2020

READ OF THE DAY

GRETA ROSS
Henry Hall’s Lighthouse

I was a sender of light, night-born,
hard-bright, single-minded,
focused on the task I was built for
and stood praised by all.
Mermaids rose to be dazzled and chased,
smugglers learned to mark my stare.
I was a silver sword in black water
slicing the treacherous Cornish sea.

When I turned sudden-blind
two hundred men drowned
in a storm-racked ship adrift,
its fluttering sails frantic
like moths for my guttering flame.
In 1755, with candled head afire,
I drip-sealed the keeper’s guts
with weeping molten lead.

Now his cries stitch the wind blasts
that whip the Eddystone Rocks.

‘Henry Hall’s Lighthouse’ by Greta Ross received a special mention in the Sentinel Literary Quarterly poetry competition (August 2019) judged by Roger Elkin

BLAST FROM THE PAST

IFE AWONUBI
Dried Honey

Dried Honey
On decayed mass
Courier to steps of rainbows
Destined for doom

Reluctant lips
Withdraw gradually
Allegiance to the repugnance
Oozing form frustrated nipples

Scrawny limps
Scramble for solace
In fading glories
Lingering in limbo hearts

Barren land
Epidemic of living corpses
With sunken sockets
Dry from tears of gold

Heaven’s gates locked in defiant tackle
Against earth’s entrance
With the scrimmage of life and death
Echoing schizophrenic notes

‘Dried Honey’ by Ife Awonubi was first published in Sentinel Poetry (Online) January 2003.

NEWS

Sentinel poets triumph in the Welsh

Many congratulations to the Sentinel poets recognised in the Welsh Poetry Competition 2020 including;
Konstandinos Mahoney author of Tutti Frutti – Second Prize winner in the Sentinel Poetry Book competition 2017.
Sharon Black, first prize winner, Sentinel Annual Poetry Competition 2013 with Green Sun.
John Gallas who has has also won various prizes in the Sentinel competitions over the years. His poem ‘How to make a Chough: an Origami Poem’ was highly commended in SLQ Poetry  Competition (May 2018)
Robin Muers – ‘The Threat of Sweet Peas’ was commended in the Sentinel Annual Poetry Competition 2012. The poem appears in The Genesis of Falcon.
Simon Tindale – was commended in the Sentinel Literary Quarterly poetry competition (November 2019) judged by oz Hardwick. Two Doors