The Passion of Creation, by Leonid Pasternak, oil on canvas, 19th century, location unknown. [Wikimedia Commons.]
Writer’s Lament
I don’t want to be shortlisted.
Let me drop without trace,
rather than hang on
by my fingernails.
I don’t want to be shortlisted
– it’s like being half-pregnant.
I don’t want to be shortlisted.
The only thing worse
than being shortlisted
is the most awful thing in the world,
being longlisted.
Read more from Kevin Densley HERE
Kevin Densley’s latest poetry collection, Please Feed the Macaws…I’m Feeling Too Indolent, is available HERE
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About
Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His fifth book-length poetry collection, Please Feed the Macaws ... I'm Feeling Too Indolent, was published in late 2023 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, which was published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.
I’d rather be the Eagles than the Dockers. Lose now to avoid later disappointment.
Thanks, PB. I think, in a roundabout way, I’m saying that in this poem. (Mmm – I think so, anyway!).
Thanks KD. That’s what your poem triggered in me.
We love our short-listed writers at The Furphy Literary Award.
Fair enough, JTH. Each to their own.
Ah Kev, the long and the short of it! I still get such a buzz seeing anything of mine in print, at my age it’s made it worth the glasses!
Although I even enjoy a shopping list these days!
Understand completely. And agree wholeheartedly!
Cheers
Thanks, Jim, for your comments. Of course, I enjoy seeing my work in print, too. It’s the number of writing competitions around and their propensity for short and longlisting that I’m not keen on – as well as some writers propensity to get too caught up in the competitions and the whole short and longlisting thing.
Thank you, Jane, for your comments.
Hey KD – could be something worse (maybe) – like being ineligible to submit an entry to the Canberra Poetry competition because I resided in neighbouring Queanbeyan (NSW). Actually, my suburb (Crestwood) sat so close to the ACT border that I could hit a virtual fairway drive across the border. The prize – to have the poem displayed on all Action buses for one month during peak tourist season – ie spring & the Floriade festival.
Yes, Karl, sometimes it’s the competition’s conditions of entry that are the problem, even before you get a chance to cross the starting line!
It’s like that old saying – you can’t pull up your socks if you’re not wearing any!
I think at the very least everyone who makes the shortlist should get a box of wine, and a bottle or two for the long listers. My old man said, never work for practice.
The ‘wine reward’ would certainly help! Thanks, Pards. (And I agree with your old man.)