Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

It proved hard enough selecting the contents anyway – I loved them all, damn near impossible narrowing things down to six. Plus a further four, to nominate for the Tolman Cunard Prize, if in time for the deadline. And the metaphysics of it all: is this intrinsically a good poem or is it because it touches a chord? Or both, but don’t let’s get on to interpretation; what holds significance for one reader may not reach another. However, the advantage of this method is the contrasting and comparing with those poems selected for the Readers’ Vote, so get cracking with your comments (see page 17). Anyway, after considerable deliberations (even as I write, I’m prepared for last minute changes), very near misses include Maureen Almond, June Hall, Tarek Iskander, Andrew Mayne, Sam Smith, Robin Ford, Mark Farrell and W.H. Petty.

The winners, then: a year’s free subs for three very different poems, all masterly and extremely chilling: Jacqueline Karp’s Discussion, Graeme Kenna's Advice to Slave Owners, Katrina Willoughby’s Kaipara Breakfast. Third (£20): Vikrant Kumar Srivastava; Sacred Eagle displays a fabulous economy, whilst Second (£30) is Cliff Forshaw – such splendid effrontery and pyrotechnics in Crusoe. And First (£40) comes Dancing at Cowhill, by Simon Fletcher. God knows how many poets rush for pen and paper when tackling issues. They’d be far better off pausing to study this remarkable piece of work, and the politicians, and the students, and the schoolchildren, and the parents. It should haunt us all.