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Martha Robinson Poetry Competition 2005

"Martha Robinson" Poetry Competition 2005: This year’s poetry competition was unique because it was themed around the idea of ‘Independence’ and for the first time the winners were decided upon by a public vote. There were 73 entries in total and the judging panel of National Voices Forum volunteers drew up a shortlist of ten poems that were then printed in Perceptions. The service user members of Voices Forum were then invited to vote for the winner by returning a voting slip.  The number of votes was very close ‘Recipe for Mental Health’ by Eileen Ellis-Whitfield and ‘Kind, Free, and Independent’ by Andrew Low received the same amount of votes so we decided to award them both joint Third places. The First prize of £100 went to ‘Pilgrimage’ by Austin Pullen. All the short listed poets received a certificate of commendation and we would like to thank everyone for taking part.