Sol Magazine's
Poet Laureate 2005 Edition
© 2005 SOL MAGAZINE
http://www.sol-magazine.org


HONORABLE MENTION

Gillian Wilkinson
Saxonwold, RSA

Gillian Wilkinson

Gillian Wilkinson is an educator and currently Director of Community Services at Kingsmead College, a private girls’ school in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she taught for many years.  She has long written for pleasure and has enjoyed Sol Magazine for nearly four years.  Her work may be found in school magazines, but the bulk of her published poems appear in Sol Magazine.  In her words, "I write because it is a way of expressing the emotions I feel when I look around South Africa.  I write because my heart calls me to share ideas and thoughts that rise in response to the beauty, sorrow, hope and joy that permeate the world.  I write because sometimes the words just come off the end of the pen.”
EDITORS’ & JUDGES’ COMMENTS:  Intensely expressive and mysterious language embodies several elements of creativity that combine with poetical devices such as imagery, personification and alliteration.  Skilled use of form marked with emotion and grace; a remarkable quality.  Good command of  imagery, meter, rhyme, both internal and near, personification and alliteration in these three pieces.  This poet enlists the senses with descriptive verbs.   Assonance helps set the tone and pace of the poetry.   This poet chooses the most unusual analogies, yet ones that make perfect sense in a "Why did no one else see it that way before?" way once a reader experiences one of the poems.  There is an obvious love of the English language in the careful way lines are constructed, rather than written, and each poem has an air of having been born, as opposed to created.

HIV

I enter silently passing Pleasure’s door
Secretively, invisible to the eyes
Of Passion dreaming, longing for more
And more of Sensuous’ soft silky cries;
I pass dulled Reason sleeping sonorously
Drowsed by street prepared powdery potions,
With Judgment absent, I creep easily
Into the pounding pulses of people’s lives.
I slide joyfully down plastic lines
And dive deep into Life’s restoring blood,
Passing waiting Death to where Immune shines
My way to a cell, my waiting abode.
A decade passes, Illness sets me free,
I rise, challenging World to conquer Me.

© 2005 Gillian Wilkinson

COMMENTS:  Imaginative introduction creates an intensely moving perfect realization of vision.  Sonnet-like rendering with a haunting undercurrent of pain and forgiveness. Successful use of alliteration and cadence.  Refreshing meter that makes use of a slight change in number of syllables throughout.  Consistent unforced rhyme scheme.  Personification creeps into the lines rather than being intrusive.  The poignant theme of the poem carries well throughout, nicely combined with unique imagery.  This poem immediately calls to mind Shelley's great metaphorical pieces such as "The Cloud" and others. Careful word selection and placement and good use of alliteration bring the terrible affliction that stalks almost every country and every culture subtly yet starkly to life. A very well done piece.  This poem is an engaging approach to a worldwide critical issue.  The poet’s unique approach gives voice to the virus allowing readers to view unexpected facets of the disease.  Each intriguing line attracts, repels and frightens simultaneously.  A profound piece.  Skillful end-rhyme that makes the poem flow.  A sensory sonnet. The snakelike hisses of "s" and the ‘plosion of "p" effectively underscore the insidious and devastating intrusion of HIV.  An amazing analogy, and one that is scintillating in its clarity.  Beautiful word choices create an almost ethereal air, and the Dickinson-esque use of capitalization has the interesting side-effect of personification in the same breath.  Closing lines are an open challenge - but also a plea.  Beautifully done.
waterlogged clouds
pelt raindrops pocking parched earth
summer thunder storm

© 2005 Gillian Wilkinson

COMMENTS:  Well-rendered mood.  The poet links a picturesque snapshot moment with strikingly artistic phrases to grab the reader's senses.  Excellent haiku with a slight twist of thought in third line.  Captures a moment in time.  Nice imagery rendered by good use of alliteration and near rhyme.  Reiteration of p sounds turns summer rain into music.  A well written poem by a skilled poet.  Nice image and use of consonance with pelt, pocking, parched.  This scene enlists the senses of the reader. The sight of heavy clouds and the feel and smell of rain on a parched earth are delicious!  Marvelous alliteration in the second.  Nice repeated sound in the final line, as well, with "summer thunder."
hawk feathers drop down
onto city draughts rising up
swirling them away

© 2005 Gillian Wilkinson

COMMENTS:  Opposition of movements work together to create natural harmony.  Application of gentle imagery coupled with delicate word choice creates an engaging duality.  Excellent imagery, like a photo.  Good word selection gives the reader a well presented contrast in this haiku.  Allows reader to rise and fall as free as the poet’s featured feathers.   Unique image, nice contrast and duality of high and low then swirling feathers provide a delightful visual treat!  In just a few lines, the poet has captured the struggle of Nature with the steadily encroaching cities and mankind's creations.  The final line has both the air of something just happening and the air of something inevitable and intensely, incredibly sad.  May this poet never stop writing!
 

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