The invitation for poems making the case for a national commemoration day for a person or thing of your choice brought in a varied and entertaining entry.
While Alanna Blake championed the dandelion, there were also impassioned calls for days that high-five Thomas Crapper, Doris Day and the tent. I, for one, would happily celebrate a Tom Waits day with Adrian Fry.
The winners below take £25 each. Bill Greenwell pockets £30.
Bill Greenwell Bring us the day of the dodo, The day of the passenger pigeon, That their memories never corrode, oh Let’s cheer them, and more than a smidgen:
Let’s praise those whose very long luck Receded to zilch and to zippo: The quagga, the Amsterdam duck, The bluebuck, the tiny dwarf hippo,
The great auk they killed on St Kilda, The red rail, and slim Wimmer’s shrew, All dead for a ducat, a guilder, Like the broad-faced and pale potoroo.
Though the gracile opossum’s extinct, Let us sift our remembrance’s urn: All creatures’ misfortunes are linked — Don’t forget.
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