Poetry competition

Earlier this year we announced that we were running a poetry competition to celebrate 80 years of Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and our amazing wildlife. We were delighted to receive upwards of 140 entries from poets of all ages, and our judge and the Bard of Barnsley Ian McMillan had this to say: ‘It was such a joy to read the poems submitted to the poetry competition: I'm very moved by the way that people turn to heightened language to articulate how much wildlife of all kinds means to them. In the end we're all wildlife, I guess, and we're all poets.' 

Adult winner: Letter to Hamza, Sue Norton

Dear Hamza, where were you yesterday, big man?
We wanted you here on the footbridge, to whack 
the biggest high five. We’d hoped for kingfishers, 
electric-blue flashes up this stretch of the Nidd. 
Didn’t expect a splash, a line of bubbles tracing 
the dive, a pop-up head streaming chevron glints, 
the plunge of a slick furred back, muscular flick of 
a paddle tail. But today, Hamza, we saw two! 
Fishing in plain sight! We watched them surrender 
to the current, twirl under the bridge, whizz past 
under our feet. Didn’t know whether to believe it 
or not when they sprang up the bank, glanced at us, 
didn’t care. Rollicked under the alder’s overhang 
before slipping back. Water zipped shut with a glint
but through its brown glass we saw lithe twists 
before they surfaced, sometimes with fish. Hamza, 
you’re so right to say such sightings happen while 
dog walkers toss sticks, children squabble, and no one 
looks beyond their familiar circle. A single passerby 
stopped to ask what glued us to binoculars. She was 
thrilled. Oh Hamza, you’d have jigged, bear-hugged us 
on the bridge, to see the frolic of otters fishing, 
fearless, upstream from town.

13-17 winner: The Waxwings of Morrisons' Carpark, Eliana Holloway

Even Yorkshire’s half-time residents
are heard before they’re seen.

The black-masked bandits
of supermarket car parks,

Ford Fiestas and trollies;
shameless interrupters

of Saturday morning shopping
who bear news of winter

and leave without a trace.
Hear them—bold and drunken

berry-guzzlers, silver-tongued gossips
perched out of sight. And watch them leave,

wax seals breaking, words spilling
over Morrisons’ slanted tiles,

like unsealed letters taking flight
into the wind.

8-12 winner: Egret in York, Abigail Wallis

Striking white
Bright as paper
Purer than snow

Glides on
Outstretched wings
Over the tall reeds
Rippling water
And rustling grasses

Smooth touchdown
Stands statues still
Perched
Poised
Ready to-

STRIKE

Striking white
Bright as paper
Purer than snow

Little egret glide away
Into the fading light of dusk

Under 8 winner: Jennifer O’Neill

Y You hear the sweet song of the birds
O On distant fields deer graze
R Rooks flying at dawn above
K Kites soaring overhead
S Squirrels scampering about
H Hollow legs full of creepy crawlies
I In nests low eggs
R Rabbits racing to their burrows
E Eels rushing through the currents