Congratulations to Miranda Yuan and Lily Richards on their poetry success at the recent NZ Given Words competition.
The Given Words competition has been running for ten years and never before have they had a unanimous decision on the winner. Each poet, judge and reader brings their own life experiences and poems speak to them in different ways.
However, this year Miranda Yuan shone and was selected by all judges as the U16 winner with The Menu.
The judges said of Miranda’s work: “It is succinct with each word perfectly integrated into the poem. Five dishes served with irony and social criticism.”
“A beautifully structured poem which cleverly and understatedly expresses its opposition to political injustice, economic inequality, competition for resources, and animal exploitation.”
Miranda, the winner for the second year running, will receive books courtesy of The Cuba Press and Massey University Press as her prize.
Lily Richards was runner-up with her poem Thread of Reality which takes on the theme of artificial intelligence, with reflections on truth and how we are complicit in our use of AI.
The judges praised Lily for “her playful use of symbols running through the poem giving a visual parallel to the theme.” Lily also receives a prized book selection.
All entries had to include the following five words: pair, endure, lightfast, hold, and justice.
The Menu
Tonight’s Special: The Final Feast
Appetizer
Bread
And circuses
to entertain the masses.
Elevated rations
of what the poor had to endure.
Olive
A single fruit offered from the branch.
Starvation is minimalism,
and minimalism is art.
Main
Lamb
From the slaughter
with flesh that tastes like still-warm blood.
Pair it with red wine
lightfast on the lips.
Whose feet had juiced the grapes?
Let’s raise a glass to justice.
Dessert
Pomegranate
Six seeds to hold you–
sweet as the promise of love.
Brûlée
The world burns with a hint of orange.
Miranda Yuan, aged 15
Thread of reality
Hold onto the final threads of reality, ——
the world around you collapsed into the hands
of an unnamed artificial intelligence.
The line blurred bet/ween
the “truth” and the “lie”
pairs of pixelated eyes follow you
Those who live in the world will watch in awe as
they realise the world isn’t
lightfast; it f a d e s.
It loses colour faster than you want it to.
You wonder
Why?
but you are the one draining life
and replacing it with grey,
you are the one allowing this to happen.
There is no way to justify what we are doing
to the world.
But you and I both know we can’t endure this much longer soon
the threads will sever — —
and you will have to let go. – – – – – –
Lily Richards, aged 14
