Poetry prize for writer in residence

University Writer in Residence Colette Bryce has been awarded the first prize in the National Poetry Competition 2003 - a prestigious UK competition whose previous winners have gone on to be recognised as the best in the poetry world.

Colette received her prize of £5,000 at a ceremony in Lovells, a major international business law firm in London.

Colette said, "I never imagined I'd win. I sent off a few poems in a moment of optimism in October so the telephone call in January came as a bit of a shock."

Colette's poem, The Full Indian Rope Trick, was selected from over nine thousand entries by the judges Paul Farley, Grace Nichols and Medbh McGuickian. Colette added, "That my poem was chosen by three poets whose work I admire has added to the good news."

Colette has kindly allowed Contact to publish her award winning poem.

Her new collection of poetry, also entitled The Full Indian Rope Trick, will be published by Picador in January.

The Full Indian Rope Trick

There was no secret
murmured down through a long line
of elect; no dark fakir, no flutter
of notes from a pipe,
no proof, no footage of it -
but I did it,

Guildhall Square, noon,
in front of everyone.
There were walls, bells, passers-by;
then a rope, thrown, caught by the sky
and me, young, up and away,
goodbye.

Goodbye, goodbye.
Thin air. First try.
A crowd hushed, squinting eyes
at a full sun. There
on the stones
the slack weight of a rope

coiled in a crate, a braid
eighteen summers long,
and me
I'm long gone,
my one-off trick
unique, unequalled since.

And what would I tell them
given the chance?
It was painful; it took years.
I'm my own witness,
guardian of the fact
that I’m still here.