Waltham Forest (Parliament Politics Magazine) – The Waltham Forest Poetry Competition, run by Forest Poets Stanza since 2018, continues its tradition, drawing talent and spotlighting community voices.
Our 2025 judge, Lorraine Mariner, read more than a thousand poems to choose our outstanding winners.
Lorraine was unaware of the authors’ identities because each poem was submitted anonymously. This year’s theme was WEATHER/WHETHER, and we got poetry from almost 600 poets from 26 different countries, including New Caledonia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam, in addition to Waltham Forest and the UK.
Lorraine:
“Thank you to everyone who submitted a poem, for discovering that you had a weather poem to send in or for writing a new poem. I was deluged in poetry but when I discovered a poem that really spoke to me or took me by surprise, it was like a break in the cloud of words and a glimpse of sunlit language.”
Stow Brothers kindly supported the local rewards for poets who reside, work, or study in Waltham Forest.
Tusshara Nalakumar Srilatha of Walthamstow won the adult prize for her poetry Turn Back the Day in December at the standing-room-only Trades Hall. Tusshara has won the prize twice in a row.
Tusshara said:
“This poem was inspired by my last few days studying in Buenos Aires. It was early 2020 and I had planned to be there until the summer. But as the pandemic developed, and travel restrictions loomed, I quickly booked a flight home to be with family.
What followed was a surreal 48 hours of packing, abrupt goodbyes, and walking around the neighbourhood in disbelief. This poem explores the yearning that I felt for more time in the city.”
Poetry judge Lorraine said:
“I was drawn in by the unexpected image this poem opens with – sunshine as soup – and how the images continue to build, surprising word combinations creating a sensuous, unique language. The speaker of the poem is a vampire in reverse, longing for sunlight and the peace this brings them. But there is weather anxiety too as they venture out into “my leaking city”, and a sense of decay. A surprising poem expressing hope and fear, searching for glimpses of nature in the urban landscape.”
Fatima Sara Dar won the Young Poet Award for The Great Stink. Eleven-year-old Leytonstone resident Fatima was inspired to write the poem by her cat Roya, whose cat litter caused a terrible stench (“The naughty little traitor/Mischief-making creator!”). Roya served as an inspiration for many of her poetry, novels, and artwork.
What is the theme for this year’s competition?
No specific theme for the 2025 Waltham Forest Poetry Competition appears in current reports, with once times featuring open or varied prompts like rainfall, fellowship, or community motifs.
Former editions have used accessible, suggestive subjects similar as” The Weather”( 2021) or” Friendship,” encouraging broad lyrical responses up to 40 lines without strict constraints, frequently blazoned via the timber muses Stanza’s WordPress point or Poetry Society rosters.
Competitions generally open sessions in afterlife for spring judging, with themes revealed on sanctioned runners; check pctothepowerof2.wordpress.com directly for 2025 updates, as no fixed theme dominates annually. Entries exceed 1,000 yearly from global submitters, judged anonymously by muses like Jacqueline Saphra; winners are celebrated at events in Walthamstow venues similar as Ye Olde Rose and Crown, with a confided workshop published online.
