So the Adelaide Plain's 'Freedom' poetry competition has been judged, awards handed over, or in the post, and now the next thing is approaching fast. The annual poetry brings out wonderful poetry, competing to be the best of the best, all around Australia.
And my, was the best certainly the best. If you read the Judge's Report, you can see that Jude Aquilina was definitely of the opinion that these poetry entries were quality poems. As the competition secretary, I agree. I felt the overall quality of the entries was outstanding, and many poems could have been the winners.
Entering competitions though, means that you may not win ... And of course on another day, or under another judge, another poet may have won. I would not have liked to have to try to choose between poems for this event, there was only very little between the entries. I did enjoy reading all of the poems sent to me, in my position of Competition Secretary - all of those wonderful poems sent to me in the mail, and I didn't have to pay a thing for the privilege!
I thank all of the poets who sent work in, and congratulate the winners. I also thank the teachers who helped and encouraged their students to enter this competition, and all of the other things they do to encourage the writing of poetry. Poetry and the writing and reading of it can open the young mind to many different things, and with the thinking on different things, comes knowledge and understanding.
Helping young people in this way is surely a wonderful thing for the students initially and for the entire country. Having young people growing up and moving into the workforce, when they are open to many different ideas and options, surely that bodes well for us all!
