Thank you to all those who submitted to the Passionfruit Poetry Prize 2025.
The judge, Amlanjyoti Goswami, has made the following selections:
First prize: ‘On Mother’s Day, Gabby Asks Me What Superpower I Wanted But Didn’t Get’ by Richard Allen Taylor
Second prize: ‘Pre-Existing Conditions’ by Tracie Renee
Third prize: ‘Symbolism’ by Julia Webb
Read these poems and Amlanjyoti Goswami’s comments below.
The following poems have also been highly commended and will be published alongside the prizewinners in a special issue of The Passionfruit Review in late November:
Joyful things – Aileen Sheedy
Break Up – James Ducat
Love Song II – Esther Lay
you, who are the most cherished and loved by me – Shepard DiStasio
Not here, not yet – José Buera
Kingfisher – Sara Valentine
Years Pass- Mary Gillen
Meal for Two – Philip Byrne
A Long Marriage Submits to His Parkinson’s Forecast – Melinda LePere
Salad Hands – Elizabeth Walton
How to Say No – Catherine Ferrell
Habitats – Fulya Pinar
‘On Mother’s Day, Gabby Asks Me What Superpower I Wanted But Didn’t Get’ by Richard Allen Taylor
I immediately think of Superman but
decide I really don’t want to see through
your clothes or jump over your building
or lift a walrus with one hand but then
I think it would be nice to have the power
to save myself from myself and maybe
you from yourself but then we get into
ethical issues and politics, religion and so on
and God knows what trouble even
the simplest power can cause not to mention
the super part. I wanted to save my father
from his bad heart my mother from old age
my daughter from alcohol my wife from leukaemia
but I had no life ring to toss no rope long enough
to get the job done though I wish I had more love
to offer since all I can muster seems weak and puny
and offset by selfishness and vanity as compared to say,
Mother Teresa, or my mother, or your mother,
or for that matter, any mother you can name.
Judge’s comments:
This poem is honest, humorous and heartwarming, for being able to acknowledge one’s powerlessness in the face of life ‘with no life ring to toss, no rope long enough to get the job done’. Yet the healing power of love somehow shines through, more as a wish than as a remedy, and this realisation somehow renders unexpected power to the ordinary reality of existence.
‘Pre-Existing Conditions’ by Tracie Renee
After
they cut the cord
when his pink cheeks
fade to dusk-blue
they ask me
to flatten his fists
for the needle’s nip
lay my hands
on the cage of his heart
hold my breath
while counting his
and when the needle
fails
when his heart
flutters fast as a hummingbird’s wing
they teach me
to crush bags of ice
into his wide eyes & open mouth
and I do it
again & again
having loved him
even before
the ice, the needles
the fists, the cord.
Judge’s comments:
This poignant poem recollects the moment of a medical crisis ‘when the needle fails’ and ‘the heart flutters fast as a hummingbird’s wing’. If there is love, it is disguised as attention to the moment in an emergency. Love lives in the knowledge of its presence long before any of the sordid events in the hospital take place.
‘Symbolism’ by Julia Webb
Because perhaps we were that shell in some way; the shell
that you brought me back from a trip you took to Scotland
without me. Bought rather than found; as it was too big,
exotic, to be found on these shores. Like the shell of a giant
snail, resplendent spirals of white and orange. Ostentatious,
I thought, if a natural thing can be that. It was a gift given
with love that sat for years gathering dust on the dining
room shelf. This shell has come to represent the tenuous
and troubled connection between us, the push and pull of
our years-long friendship. How a clairvoyant once said we
have travelled through many lifetimes together but still
things aren’t resolved. And now I find the shell in the
bottom of the box it got thrown into, in the hurrying panic
of packing up to move; one edge broken, jagged, and it’s
much more beautiful than I remembered. And I am filled
with remorse for the disdain I showed it all those years when
it was still whole.
Judge’s comments:
This poem is symbolic in resonance and stylish in delivery, tracing the meaning and pattern of love, in the chance discovery of a shell now broken, and once whole. This prose poem delicately weaves the patterns of a life together, ordinary as the shell, with the sudden realisation of beauty as an imperfect condition, much like love itself.
About the judge
Amlanjyoti Goswami‘s new book of poetry, A Different Story, has just been published by Poetrywala. He has written two widely reviewed books, River Wedding and Vital Signs, published by Poetrywala. River Wedding was shortlisted for the Sahitya Akademi award. Published in journals and anthologies across the world, including Poetry, The Poetry Review, Penguin Vintage, Rattle and Sahitya Akademi, he is also a Best of the Net and Pushcart nominee. His work has appeared on street walls of Christchurch, buses in Philadelphia, exhibitions in Johannesburg and an e-gallery in Brighton. He has reviewed poetry for The Hindu, Frontline, Review 31 and Modern Poetry in Translation among others. He has read at various places, including Delhi, Mumbai, New York, Chandigarh, Boston and Bangalore. He grew up in Guwahati and lives in Delhi.
He was also a contributor to Issue 1 of The Passionfruit Review.