Round 1: Bermuda-Uganda

PREAMBLE

Well, hello there. What’s a reader like you doing in a place like this? If you’re here to catch up with yesterday’s Poetry World Cup (or should that be Word Cup?) results, you’ll want to know that Ravi Shankar, representing the USA, has moved through to the second round after a tightly-contested victory over Esther Phillips, representing Barbados. The underdogs from the Caribbean took a narrow lead in the first few hours of voting, only for the US to strike back and move ahead at half-time. As Barbados closed the gap in the web poll, the US pulled ahead in the facebook poll, and their defence (or, since this is the US we’re talking about, ‘defense’) held firm in a tense finale.

If you’re here for today’s action, it’s time to introduce the contenders. Nancy Anne Miller’s first collection is forthcoming through Guernica Editions: she is frequently seen as a ‘post-colonial’ poet, and her poems on Bermuda are motivated by ‘a desire to show the island beyond the tourist image and get to the… wonderfully-rich society.’ She leads writing workshops at the Bermuda National Library, and has received a number of awards from Bermuda’s Arts Council.

Her opponent is Derek Lubangakene (Uganda), perhaps better known as a writer of fantasy fiction than as a poet. He was the only Ugandan writer to be longlisted for the 2013 Golden Baobab Awards, and his work has been widely-published in local newspapers. He’s also a blogger, sketch artist and ‘origami dilettante.’

                               

Jailor

Lovers within themselves, are jails—
but his love is exceptional; he’s a convict that
never dreams of escape,
In his penitentiary—this abyss—
of papier-mâché walls and ceilings made
of vows and promises, and barbed gates strung with
small impressionable lies and grand gestures,
there’s graffiti chalked everywhere—
“No one’s innocent,” one declares,
“There’s no reason for escape,” another reads…

~ Derek Lubangakene

Read the full poem

RESULT: Bermuda won by 20 votes