{"id":2294,"date":"2016-05-05T15:06:54","date_gmt":"2016-05-05T14:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/?p=2294"},"modified":"2016-05-07T09:29:10","modified_gmt":"2016-05-07T08:29:10","slug":"tommy-irons-2016-basil-bunting-poetry-award-young-persons-prize-winner-15-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/?p=2294","title":{"rendered":"Tommy Irons <h6>2016 Basil Bunting Poetry Award Young Person\u2019s Prize Winner, 15 &#8211; 19<\/h6>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>NGC 6302<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8220;There&#8217;s a small line of justification where one can want and one can need, but if one can (and has the ability to) need, what can one possibly want?&#8221;<br \/>\nIt&#8217;s odd, the word odd. It implies a lack of normality. As if light reflection (the normal) was the contextual purpose at the time. I mean, I guess it always is. But in terms of presence and being, what&#8217;s the point? If I&#8217;m having a conversation with someone, I wouldn&#8217;t care if I had a speech impediment, was deaf and\/or blind.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Because there is little more important than simple human interaction;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">a definitive aspect of human attraction. We push ourselves forward, always the &#8216;right&#8217;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">direction. But what if we want to bare left? Slightly off course, not 90 degrees.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Would we evolve to being entirely deaf? Would the English language be abolished, for none<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">to see? Just, left?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">I&#8217;d rather go backwards. I&#8217;d rather use my own words, expel a sound from my body, similar to the action of birds. Use my own mind, explore my inner &#8216;nerd&#8217;. See what happened 14 billion years ago; how 10\u00af?\u00b3 seconds was rather exponential.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">We&#8217;ve got a &#8216;star&#8217; naming their offspring after a star. A star we designated as &#8216;North&#8217;! I mean, we haven&#8217;t even been to Mars, and that&#8217;s only fourth! I&#8217;d advise we get our heads straight, and stop being depressed. Because, in terms of time, damn, we&#8217;re a bit late! I&#8217;m not saying we have less, but, really, I have about 80 years left \u2013 thanks to the NHS (No Heart Stoppings) &#8211; and I&#8217;d be damned if I don&#8217;t see the world without rest.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">All I&#8217;m asking is that we take a step back, and realise where we are. We&#8217;re in an (so far) ever-<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">growing, eternal universe that stretches really, really far!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">93 billion light years. My, that&#8217;s remarkable. Luckily, we aren&#8217;t trapped in a dark black hole.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">We are free information, able to escape the event horizon. We&#8217;re free to explore.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">So, please, join me in wanting more! If you need a reason why to, look up NGC 6302.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Or, easier, just look up. It&#8217;s waiting for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NGC 6302 &#8220;There&#8217;s a small line of justification where one can want and one can need, but if one can (and has the ability to)&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[468,473,11,476],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2294"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2294"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2295,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2294\/revisions\/2295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}