Blake Prize 2013 Judges’ Comments
The understatement and a matter-of-fact tone in this poem as well as its extraction of the spiritual from the secular and everyday is beautifully and compellingly rendered. There is a central wit in the disparate association of mortality and sport. Incidental detail such as the cosmic catastrophe of asteroids skilfully develops the poem’s thematic layers. Flight and myth, death and departure are all given serious weight with dexterity. The language and voice are measured with care and great precision. The poem addresses the human need for a deeper, everyday mythology in our modern world.