Tom Weir, 2019 Competition Adjudicator, "What Am I Looking For?"

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I’m looking for poems that exist in their own right, poems that own the space they occupy and know what they’re doing there — even if the poet doesn’t! I’m looking for poems that catch me off-guard, poems urgent enough to take off in stormy weather but controlled enough to land safely at the end of their flight. I’m looking for poems with something at stake, poems not just written for writing’s sake.

  

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