Blake Prize 2013 Judges’ Comments
‘Almost Pause/ Pareidolia’:
Taking from its title this poem elaborates on the vague randomness of images with a narcotic-like vividness, evoking the spiritual. The language is at once specific, gorgeous and cleverly disconnected as meanings are deferred. Mermaids, forest cockatoos and the imprinted net on a turtle’s back all become premonitions; the tone of self-address retains a calm, almost melancholic restraint. An intelligent, complex poem that addresses the phenomenon of meaning-making where there is none to be found.