Brighton based poet John Davies has won third prize in a major poetry competition, the Wales Poetry Award, with a little help from his three year old Golden Retriever, Wilson.
The competition judge Pascale Petit described John’s poem, Caliban, as ‘a poem in praise of green space’ and a successful attempt to imagine an animal’s consciousness. In writing the poem John had special research assistance from his Golden Retriever, Wilson. “There were two main inspirations for the poem,” says John. “I took part in a multi-disciplinary eco-writing series organised by Kin and Kin'd (Kay Syrad and Clare Whistler) and one of the challenges was to walk barefoot around a local territory and record one's impressions. At the same time I was very involved in the successful campaign to protect a local green space, Varndean Green, from development.” John explored his garden and the green spaces nearby with Wilson and used Wilson’s reactions in the poem. “Wilson is very expressive,” says John, with a wry smile. “What he can do with a pair of slippers is amazing!”
Click here too see the Meridian TV News item.
Click here to read and hear the poem.