How to win a poetry competition

What makes a good poem? I had a chance to find out when I was invited to Chair the judging panel of the Poetry Society’s National Poetry Competition.

Of course there were differences of personal taste among the three judges. But as they debated their lists, a clear consensus emerged on the principles they were using to include – or eliminate – poems from the final selection.

So, to help you fine-tune your own competition poems – and to encourage all you poetry phobics out there to put a toe in the water – here are my ten rules for writing a prize-winning poem:

 

1. Choose unusual subject matter

A surprising idea or unfamiliar image may be enough to get your poem onto the shortlist. Poems set in the past or the future, in a foreign country, from an unusual point of view, all excite the reader’s curiosity. Consider whether you can play up the surreal or unique aspects of your poem.

 

2. Start with a hook

Plunge straight in with a phrase to grab your reader’s attention and make them want to read on. This assumes that a poem should have a narrative structure. It should! The action or argument in your poem needs to move forwards. Cut to the chase: try excising your slow first stanza.

 

3. It must make a point

The criticism ‘What’s the point of this poem?’ came up so often during the judging process that I started abbreviating it to ‘WTP’ in my notes. Your reader needs to understand why your poem was written. You don’t need to carry a placard, but you do need to expand the reader’s understanding in some way.

 

4. Minimise description

There’s a reason why the haiku (that quintessential descriptive poetic form) is only 17 syllables long: description can often be boring and static. Try using verbs instead of adverbs or adjectives to convey the effect you’re after: ‘whip’ instead of ‘wave quickly’, for example. You’ll quicken the pace without cluttering the poem.

 

5. Expunge every cliché

Stock phrases add no meaning and waste precious space. Test every word and phrase for predictability. Focus especially on adjective-noun combinations and see if they can be replaced by something less obvious. ‘Bright sun’ and ‘gloomy clouds’ have no place in any poem.

 

6. Outlaw abstract words

Keep your poem concrete. Make it appeal to the senses. Poems gain much of their resonance by generating images that appeal to the unconscious. Abstract terms like ‘loss’ and ‘nostalgia’ may make sense to the conscious mind but they leave the unconscious cold.

 

7. Make it clear

Several shortlisted poems fell at the last hurdle because of a confusing double negative or mind-boggling sentence structure. Ambiguous or clumsy syntax slow down your reader and prevent them from appreciating the images and ideas in your poem.

 

8. Avoid obscure references

A competition poem can be complex and oblique, but it must be understandable to a reasonably literate reader. Obscure cultural references prevent the reader from entering the poem’s world. Certain personal details and anecdotes can have the same bamboozling effect.

 

9. End with a punch

A comment made about many of the shortlisted poems was, ‘it just tails off’. Because the poem is a kind of narrative, it must build towards a satisfying resolution or conclusion. This is especially important in a stand-alone competition poem, where there are no other poems to provide a context.

 

10. Choose a tantalising title

Your title should excite an image and be memorable. To do either, it needs to be concrete. If you’re stuck, try the following formula: pronoun/article (the, a, his, her, etc.) + adjective (blue, wet, hungry, happy) + noun (choose something concrete; house, hat, dog, priest). 'Her wet house' – wouldn't you want to read on?