Given Words, established and curated by poet Charles Olsen for ten years, has been a regular feature of Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day. After deliberating alongside Pat White and Sophia Wilson, Charles recently published the winning poems and a selection of special mentions in both the adults’ and under-16s’ categories. Over 160 poems were received this year, and the judges have chosen 64 to publish here on Given Words.

This year the ‘given words’ were supplied by five filmmakers: Ebba Jahn, Tom Konyves, Cindy Stockton Moore, Ian Gibbins and Colm Scully. Here are the five words: justice, endure, pair, lightfast, hold.

The winner of Best Poem is Sadie Yetton for her poem ‘Venus, Don’t You Laugh At Me ‘and the winner of Best Poem by Under-16s, for the second year running, is Miranda Yuan for her poem ‘The Menu’.

For this 10th edition, and because there were so many wonderful poems, the judges awarded Special Mentions in the adults category to Gail Zing for her poem ‘Lightfast’, Cindy Kurukaanga for her poem ‘Nō Te Paruparu, Nō Te Purapura | Of the Mud, Of the Seed’, and to Renee Liang for her poem ‘Pinhole’. In the under-16s category, Special Mentions go to Sabrina Li for her poem ‘Photos taken the day they said it was over’, Gia Beckett for her poem ‘My Purple Life!’, and Lily Richards for her poem ‘Thread of Reality’.

Congratulations to all on behalf of Given Words, The Cuba Press and Massey University Press. You can read the judges comments and all the winning poems on the Given Words website, but here are the two winning poems.

Venus, Don’t You Laugh At Me

Venus, don’t you laugh at me
I’m your daughter, it appears you made a crooked one
Stilted in manner, steadfast in mania
Unjust in justice, your infinite amusement
Venus, you birthed a brute
You spat out a savage
You knew I’d fall on the way of love
Just as wolves fall on rabbits
Making a mess of how I eat it; blood, bones, brain
Clueless how to clean up after myself
What have I ever been if not your doing?
I was a child, then a child with a woman’s voice
I was lightning, lightfast, then lightless
I was a person, then somehow only parts of one
But I’ve always been of your blood
And you can’t bleed it out of me
A creature is still a child if it claims to be
A freak is due her worth if she endures
Venus, I know why you laugh at me
Because not feigning hilarity
At your own incompetence is worse than being so
Even with your back to me, we’re a pair of siamese souls
Because this rabid thing resembles its mother
And she wants you to hold her like you mean it
Look at who you made
Love it

Sadie Yetton
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland

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
Ōtautahi Christchurch