A Somerset grandmother has won one of the biggest poetry prizes of the year. £1,000 and a magnificent trophy have gone to Lawrette Williams of Drayton for becoming the UK poetry champion 2005 in the annual competition run by United Press.
Lawrette's winning poem Child In a Train, is her description of an incident which happened to her many years ago. It was chosen after a lengthy selection process, and is reproduced here along with a sample of work from other regional winners.
From tens of thousands of entries from people all over the UK, United Press pick around 250 regional winners every year and put them into the annual National Poetry Anthology. Each one of those 250 winners then votes for the best poem in the book.
"To be voted for by so many prize-winning poets is the best and fairest way to win any competition," said Lawrette. "That's why I'm so delighted that they chose me. When I got the phone call to say I was the winner, I was in total shock and disbelief. Receiving the trophy and cheque was wonderful but winning the competition means more to me than that. It's the thrill of a lifetime."
Lawrette (71) has written poetry since childhood. Born in Portsmouth, she was a pupil at the Royal Academy of Music in London and later became a speech and drama teacher. She has written two musicals and many poems, one of which she presented in person to the Queen.
Lawrette is a widow with two children and three grandchildren. Although disabled with arthritis she maintains many interests and is very active in her local church group. "I intend to spend my prize on a holiday," said Lawrette, who has already travelled around the world, and has lived in many countries with her late husband, Peter, a Royal Marine Officer, including Bahrain, Singapore and Malta.
You can read Lawrette’s winning poem below:
CHILD IN A TRAIN
You cannot buy me child, with your winning ways
Coy, with your dimpling curls,
Coaxing the expected smile.
How well you play the tricks to catch my glance
And snare my heart.
That pout,
The teasing turn,
The sudden pool-blue flashes through
Honeysuckle lashes.
I wait and so do you.
Then I decline your invitation,
As I might deny the fawning dog a pat,
Push away the smarming cat.
You, your repertoire exhausted, reward withheld,
Drop the pretence of being only three,
And from your ageless eyes now fixed on mine,
The woman in you glares at me.
