I feel so lucky to have had my poem ‘The way you knew’ Highly Commended in this year’s Bridport Prize, judged by Hollie McNish. It was lovely to meet the other poets over lunch at the Bridport Arts Centre, including 2nd prize winner Jim McElroy, who introduced me to a new word, ‘Hoor’, skilfully deployed as a noun, adjective and verb throughout his stunning poem. The winner, Fathima Zahra, had the entire room hanging on every word of her beautiful, poignant Things I wish I could trade my headscarf for. It was a real privilege to hear all the winners reading their poems, and also to meet Hollie McNish, who has inspired so many of my students to explore poetry for themselves.

The way you knew I fell for when reading it aloud. I felt the rhythms, repetitions and internal rhymes slipped so subtly between pauses came forth more confidently when leashed from the tongue, whilst images such as ‘the way you knew as you chewed how big the next bubble would be’ and ‘even before he began drinking ink’ ensured it would not slip into generalisation.

Hollie McNish, from the Poetry Judge’s Report, Bridport Prize Anthology 2019

It’s exciting to have a poem published in this new anthology from Smith/Doorstop, edited by Paul Deaton, Kim Moore and Ben Wilkinson. It’s fascinating to see how many poets have taken inspiration from running – as well as to read in the biographies how many different reasons people have for doing it. There are poems here about every possible aspect of running, from memories of cross country races at school to Parkruns. The neighbour-poem to mine, People Who Go Running by Joe Caldwell, will make an instant connection with any reader who has a runner in their life: ‘If you live with them, they’ll forget to make dinner / as they’re busy signing up for half marathons / in Clowne and Stamford.’

I wrote my poem, Night Run, last October when the nights were drawing in and I was just starting to have to steel myself to run in the dark again. I hate the prospect of running in the dark, especially after a long day at work, but have never yet regretted a night run once I’ve managed to get myself out of the house. The poem tries to capture that movement from reluctance to exhilaration, which I hope is something that other runners might identify with.

I was delighted to have had two poems selected in the Guernsey Poems on the Move competition by judge Maura Dooley. It was lovely to be able to go to the winners’ ceremony on 1st May, and to hear all of the other chosen poems. The unique thing about this competition is that the winning poems are displayed on Guernsey buses for a year. Although the fleet of buses had just changed when I visited, so our poems had not yet been displayed there, it was exciting to see my poems on the backs of seats on the Aurigny plane. I’m planning a visit back in October to try to track my poems down – not an easy task given that Guernsey has quite a few different bus routes!