2008 winner

Vixerunt

      come out of Vincenzo Foppa's The Young Cicero Reading (c.1464)

And yet, to have lived so much already,
the gentle weariness of an angel
who has seen lengthy warring
between good and evil,

but can't wrinkle, can't take
the rouge from his cheeks, though
reading over his experience,
tightens eyes and concentrates

to be free of his condition,
and yet relish it. Optimism
is the default position, like sowing
the wheat crop into dust

and hoping rains will come,
against predictions. You make
your own luck, and luck so made
is logic. Living is knowing.

And now, young Cicero, creating
your precedents, halo of foliage,
poise stark as any window,
tunic soft against architecture,

the case is outlined: who
threatens the state, the heart
of the republic, will be
silent. The good of the people

is the good of the state,
is the state of well being.
The evidence stacks up.
Pragmatically, in the end,

you'll ask for the cut to be clean
and swift. Here, in the provinces,
we are easily distracted by the promise
of outdoor living – what quality

of air, what perfumes – your hair
helmeted, still as anticipation.
We listen for birds: now thornbills,
now butcher birds;

but nothing distracts you,
young Cicero, from your reading:
serene as a room, the sky
dark and light at once,

this bower, this cave, where
criminals are disposed of quicker
than words, the silence
of your learning;

so, master of Rome in waiting
who is not of Roman origin,
whose words will heal and kill,
who cannot shelter beyond

"senatus consultum ultimum".

     by John Kinsella

John Kinsella (born 1963) is an Australian poet, novelist, critic, essayist and editor. His writing is strongly influenced by landscape and he espouses an 'international regionalism' in his approach to place. He has also frequently worked in collaboration with other writers, artists and musicians. John Kinsella has published over thirty books and his many awards include three Western Australian Premier's Book Awards, the Grace Leven Prize for Poetry, the John Bray Award for Poetry, and the 2008 Christopher Brennan Award. His poems have appeared in journals such as Stand, The Times Literary Supplement, The Kenyon Review, and Antipodes. His poetry collections include: Poems 1980-1994, The Silo, The Undertow: New & Selected Poems, Visitants (1999), Wheatlands (with Dorothy Hewett, 2000) and The Hierarchy of Sheep (2001). His most recent book, Peripheral Light: New and Selected Poems, includes an introduction by Harold Bloom and his next poetry collection, The New Arcadia, was published in June 2005. In 2001 he published a book of autobiographical writing, called Auto. He has also written plays, short stories and the novel Genre. John Kinsella has taught at Cambridge University where he is a Fellow of Churchill College and was formerly Professor of English at Kenyon College, where he was the Richard L Thomas Professor of Creative Writing in 2001.
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Highly Commended Poems

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