Commendations
Release
Ingrid Andersson Madison, Wisconsin, United States
What
it's like being married to an obstetrician
Carole Bromley York, England
You
drew breath
Carole Bromley York, England
Your
current difficulties
Carole Bromley York, England
Ice
Fish
Tina Carlson Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States
Dissection
Room
Nicola Carter Liverpool, England
Kafka's
uncle
Neil Douglas London, England
Neuro-developmental
clinic
Neil Douglas London, England
Rosie
Neil Douglas London, England
Room
with a view
Simon Freeman London, England
The
Smile
Joseph Gascho Hummelstown, Pennsylvania, United States
The
pathology lecture
Margaret Gourlay East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, United
States
The Day After
Faye Ng Yu Ci, Singapore
Love
alone
Melanie Jansen Woolloongabba, Queensland, Australia
Ode
To A Lover's Fibrillating Heart
David Lanier Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States
And
Breathe
Elizabeth Mitchell Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, United States
Cardinal
Signs of Healing
Daniela Rojas Providence, Rhode Island, United States
The
Majesty of Mania
Willa Schneberg Portland, Oregon, United States
Voice
Box
Wendy-Jane Walton Pontesbury, England
Emergency
Department Blues
Eika Webb Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
Changeling
Judith Wozniak Fareham, England
After
calling time of death
Ellen Zhang Troy, Michigan, United States
Biographies and inspiration for the poems
Carole Bromley lives in York where she is the Poetry Society’s Stanza rep and runs poetry surgeries. She has been shortlisted and commended in the Hippocrates Prize in previous years and is delighted to be on the shortlist again. Carole has won a number of prizes including the Bridport and the Hamish Canham Award. She writes for children as well as adults. Her most recent publications are The Peregrine Falcons of York Minster (Valley Press, 2020) and a pamphlet about pituitary surgery, Sodium 136 (Calder Valley Poetry 2019)
About her commended poems Carole said:
"Your current difficulties is about an episode of suicidal depression many years ago. I decided to write it as mental health issues need to be discussed openly.
What it’s like being Married to an Obstetrician is based on real memories from the early days of my husband’s medical career when he was doing house jobs in obstetrics and gynaecology. We were newly weds and I found the experiences of his patients moving.
You Drew Breath came out of the same poetry course with Jonathan Edwards as my shortlisted poem. It is based on Greta Stottard’s fine poem with the same title which is about a baby’s first breaths. My poem is about my father’s last breaths."
