Longlisted from 21,254 entries in the National Poetry Competition. No prize, no certificate—just a line that matters: the judges “kept coming back.” This is what that means in practice, and why it sends you straight back to the notebook.
Never An Emergency
A sleepless night with Long Covid: chronic pain and a body that won’t settle. A poem that documents two hours where pain dominates—and why chronic suffering is never treated as urgent.
Framework
A poem on the mechanics of justification: how governments reorder cause and effect, recasting first strikes as defence. Language becomes the weapon—terms positioned, meanings reassigned, contradiction absorbed—until narrative holds, regardless of sequence or consequence.
Beetle
In the dance of light and shadow, a BMW morphs from car to beetle, from green to blue: a purposeful form skittering up the road ahead.
A90, Early Afternoon
A poem about a journey to Dundee, written en route. The skyscape blurs between hazy white, muted blues and scattered grays. Her voice shifts through playful beats, while the car steadies, yet pain edges forward like a persistent rhythm. The world moves on.
