Another poetry news story happened in London this week. This time, a smear campaign started by the newly chosen Oxford Professor of Poetry, Ruth Padel, against Derek Walcott. Walcott won the Nobel Prize in Literature (for Poetry) in 1992, and now aged 79 was also vying for the Oxford Professor spot.

The smear campaign originated by Padel was on a settlement reached by Walcott in 1996 from a Freshman Harvard girl’s claim of sexual harassment in 1981. Padel has now resigned.

Forget politics, apparentlyoetry is where the real competition is at.
Source: BBC

Now for a poem,

In The Way

by Abhinav Singh Baghel

In the way,
I and they,
In fierce competition
To reap recognition
Along the day, along the night
Engaged well with all the might
Intermingled with the thoughts to light
intentions to make life more delight

In the way
I and they
In the conflagration
To seek specification
All the days, all the nights
There stay some sobbing sights
Impede others possibilities, how that counts
Immoral thoughts to give them wounds
—
Image edited from original, available at 1 One Poet 4 Man