PREAMBLE
Was anyone else tense just watching that? No? Maybe that was just me… In yesterday’s big game, one of the pre-tournament favourites was pushed all the way by spirited South American opposition: for most of the match, there was absolutely nothing to separate the two teams. That’s the Poetry World Cup encounter between the USA and Venezuela, of course, and in this version of the World Cup the underdogs scored late in the game and went through to the next stage. The US, needing only a few votes to make the difference, ended ‘not with a bang but a whimper’and Rafael Ayala Páez of Venezuela is into the quarter-finals (no penalties involved), to face either Bermuda or Tunisia.
MEET THE POETS
Bermuda’s representative is Nancy Anne Miller, whose first collection (‘Somersault’) is forthcoming from Guernica Editions.  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 has an M Litt in Creative Writing from Univ. of Glasgow, is a MacDowell Fellow, and teaches workshops in Bermuda. She was shortlisted for the small axe salon poetry prize, and is currently guest editor of ‘tongues of the ocean’.
Representing Tunisia is Ali Znaidi, an English teacher from Redeyef who claims that smoking and green tea are crucial to his ‘moments of revelation’. Ali Znaidi’s poems have been widely-published in recent years (he is reputedly the first Tunisian poet ever to have published a collection of haiku in English), and his work has been translated into German, Greek, Turkish and Italian. He has also translated work by the New Mexican poet Catfish McDaris into Arabic.
FORM GUIDE
Bermuda won comfortably in a fairly low-scoring match against Uganda in round one, leading throughout the voting and ending 20 votes ahead. Tunisia, on the other hand, were involved in the tightest match of the round, eventually drawing with Botswana after trailing for much of the voting. As per the rules of the competition, the poll was reopened and the game was decided by a “golden vote” (first vote wins): that vote quickly went to Tunisia, although we’d already run out of nails to bite by that point. A fortnight later, the editors’ nails have grown back and we’re ready for another close match: this one could go either way!
                
The bay grape leaves mimic
cobblestones on the path
which overlooks the sea.
A street lined with gold,
doubloons thrown down,
for entrance to the hidden
view. Â The trees on the side
curve like the inside of a boat…
~ Nancy Anne Miller
Talk to me apple
before a hungry
mouth devours you.
Talk to me apple
before the sun
dries your skin.
Talk to me apple
before a knife
peels you from
extreme to extreme…
~ Ali Znaidi
RESULT: Tunisia won by 3 votes
Editor’s note: If, for any reason, you’re unable to vote in the poll, please leave the name of the poem/country you’d like to vote for in the comments.
