In my opinion of course you can use it. I don't think the Staggers has much of a profile in the States. Les Murray said to me that he reckoned a few thousand miles made a lot of difference. I don't see why you shouldn't use winners to previous competitions either. We poets need our £25.
So here's a reworking of an old one of mine.
Far Holier Than Thou
Now the desert’s growing chiller, and I’m freezing on a pillar, an
Address a hundred feet above the ground.
I’m so starveling and ascetic that I’m damn near diabetic.
As a saint I’m just the saintliest around.
As a youth, alas, I lusted after prominently busted,
Shady ladies in diaphanous attire.
But as Simeon Stylites I reject such flighty nighties.
They are passports to the everlasting fire.
My belief burns like a laser; I’m a stranger to the razor
I’m so hairy that I’m scary and I smell.
But my visa says FOR JESUS, and you lewd, licentious geezers,
Mark my words, are on the primrose path to Hell.
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