[John Whitworth]

I agree with Tessa (whom I picture as Jane Russell with glasses) that Longfellow's sonorously empty rhymes affected all the competitors here except the overall winner. Still, I was the most sonorous and empty of them all so I pocket my twenty five quid with aplomb. Bad luck on Bazza but you can't buck an intellectual Jane Russell.


COMPETITION NO 137
In the Tate is Michael Andrews's A Man Who Suddenly Fell Over (1952). We do it all the time as children but take it more seriously in older age. So a poem, please, on anything the title will fit, called The Fall. Maximum 16 lines. Entries to 'Competition 137. email (comps@theoldie.co.uk) by 6 May. Don’t forget to include your postal address.