Poetry brings its rewards

Press, 10 November 1983, Page 6

Poetry brings its rewards

Poetry is not cited as a career for either Lies! Moore (right) or Melanie Gordon, of Christchurch, but their recent efforts have won them prizes in a national poetry competition.

Miss Moore, who is 18, was placed first in the poetry section of the 1983 P.E.N. Young Writers’ Incentive Awards, which were announced yesterday. She} won second prize in the same division last year. Miss Gordon, also aged 18, won third prize in the poetry and another Christchurch student, Carolyn

Lewis, was second in the prosesection. Social work or journalism is Miss Moor’s intended career. She awaits the results of her examinations from her first year of a bachelor of arts degree at the University of Canterbury. Although Miss Gordon, a pupil of Middleton Grange School, intends studying for

a home science degree in Dunedin next year, she said she would spend her $25 prize money on a collection of James K. Baxter’s works. The $lOO prize money for Miss Moore was received just in time for her to buy a new pair of tramping boots before she goes into the mountains this week-end. The sea, however, was the main subject of her collec-

tion of 12 poems submitted for the competition. “I guess it moves me— it makes me think,” she said. People and relationships in today’s society made up the balance of her subjects. A more satirical approach was taken by Miss Gordon, whose five poems were the first she had written. Other platings were: prose: Charlotte Rodgers, Wellington High School, 1; Maria Wickens, Wairarapa College, 3. Poetry: Barbara Duke, Logan Park High School, Dunedin, 2.