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2025 Journeying Poetry Competition: On a theme of Hope.
Monday 15th December 2025
We are pleased to announce that Becky Isaac with her poem, Eagle’s Wings is the winner of the 2025 Journeying Poetry Competition. Congratulations, Becky!
The judges would like to thank all those who took the time to write a poem. As ever, there was a broad range of styles in the submissions.
The Judges had this to say about Eagle’s Wings
The winning poem, 'Eagle's Wings', is striking in its rich imagery, diverse vocabulary, and elegant craftsmanship. The descriptions of the seasons and natural scenery create an evocative mood through the use of alliteration and carefully chosen adjectives: 'oak and beech, forlorn and naked', 'steely mist', 'melancholy clouds of coral', 'dismal days'. The writer interweaves sub-themes of light and darkness with the principal theme of hope: 'branches...black...sunlight trickles through', 'through those bleak and dismal days, hope sparks a flame', 'hope spreads...penetrating morning's gloom', 'hope is the sliver of light that's dawn, the chink in Night's black armour'. Rather than observing the depictions as an objective outsider, the reader is drawn in by the use of personification ('trees beseeching spring to reappear') and vivid similes: 'twigs broken like New Year's resolutions', 'though tiny as a newborn's fist, hope spreads like ripples on a pond', 'doubts like locusts swarm'. Within the scene-painting the human element sounds a note of realism ('the olive branch, the ceasefire'), as we are reminded that both nature and people suffer in the throes of war. The rhyming couplets point to the skilful design of the poem whose metrical structure is not bound to a fixed number of syllables for each line, thus allowing a sense of rhapsodic freedom throughout the sonnet.
Like 'the latent energy stored in a bud' we are inspired by the writer to release the untapped potential and soar with eagle's wings, flying on thermals of hope amidst 'nature's ceaseless unfolding drama'.
David Arkell and Gill Page, Judges of the Journeying Poetry Competition 2025.
The winning writer, Becky Isaac - A brief biography.
Becky is a writer, mum to two adult children, and nature lover. Living in a small village in the heart of the South Staffordshire countryside, with her partner and miniature schnauzer, she finds plenty of opportunities to commune with creation. In fact, country walks are often the spark that lights the flame of creativity. After six years of studying alongside mostly full-time employment, Becky achieved a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Art and Humanities (Creative Writing) with First Class Honours in 2024. She enjoys writing poetry, short stories and flash fiction, along with nature-inspired devotionals. She is on a writer’s journey of her own, aiming to finish her first cosy crime novel within the next few months!
Eagle’s Wings
Oak and beech, forlorn and naked, stretching heavenward, beseeching
Spring to reappear, to warm their gnarled and twisted branches, reaching,
Black against the steely mist, where dilute sunlight trickles through
melancholy clouds of coral, to light up pearls of morning dew,
that glint amongst bare earth and grass made sparse by mouldering leaves,
Where twigs lie scattered, broken like resolutions made on New Year’s Eve.
But through those bleak and dismal days, hope sparks a flame within our being,
Sending shadows of despair and spirits from dark places fleeing,
Though tiny as a newborn’s fist, hope spreads like ripples in a pond,
Penetrating morning’s gloom, like the blackbird’s daybreak song,
Hope is the sliver of light that’s dawn, the chink in Night’s black armour,
It’s the latent energy stored in a bud, nature’s ceaseless unfolding drama.
The olive branch, the ceasefire, an anchor in the storm,
It soars with eagle’s wings above where doubts like locusts swarm.