Poet close to national win

He entered a poem under the name of Gary Bills and made it down to the final judging session.

Poetry Society director, Judith Palmer said: "You came incredibly close in this year’s competition. This year we received over 13,000 entries, and after months of reading, judges Roddy Lumsden, Glyn Maxwell and Zoë Skoulding selected a longlist of 140 poems, including yours.

"The judges deliberated for over eight hours to decide the final placing of three top winners and eight commended poems. Although, unfortunately, you weren’t amongst the top winners this year, we still wanted to write to congratulate you. You’ll see from the huge number of entries what an achievement it is to make it through to the final judging session. When it comes to the final placings, decisions are made on the tiniest of margins."

Gary said: "Although it feels a little like putting 'Calcutta University, failed' after one's name, I am grateful for the kind words and the fact I did get close.

"The poem was inspired by an exhibition I saw at the British Museum in the 1990s, of flat portrait panels for mummies, from the time of the Roman Empire. Most were painted in hot wax and were very realistic, with bright, living colours."

WAX ON WOOD - Al Fayoum Mummy Portraits.

Do they feel the sun, - the sun on their faces?

I'll never lift the sticky lid on truth

While they are so alive and speak to us

And haunt us with their ordinary smiles.

They stare and stare from windows of the past,

Those microfilms of coloured wax on wood,

And in their pupils streets or gods appear,

Those statues indistinct in rippling heat

And squares with stalls and palm trees, and the merchants

Crying, "Figs and Coan silk, come try, come buy..."

Those days were wrapped like parcels for the night,

As if fresh youth might spoil if not preserved:

The child with pleading eyes; the frowning priest...

"We live," they sigh. "We live suffused with light."