BY ANGELO VELOTTA
Gazette Newspapers
ASHTABULA – The purpose of the C.P. Cavafy Poetry Prize is to honor a great poet of the 20th century, publishing the best possible poem Poetry International can find on an annual basis.
Enter Ashtabula’s own Dr. Roger Craik.
Craik, a native of England, who has lived, taught and travelled in many places, including, but not limited to, Yemen, Romania, Bulgaria and the Netherlands, won his share of this year’s prize and award for his poem “Swallows.”
The C.P. Cavafy Poetry Prize is named for C.P. Cavafy, widely considered the most distinguished Greek poet of the 20th century.
“Swallows,” is set to be the first poem in Craik’s upcoming book of poetry titled Alightings. That collection of his latest work is currently the finalist in a few contests nationally.
“I believe I wrote that last August. I was pretty sure that Gibraltar was south of Spain, but needed to check,” Craik said of verifying the flight pattern that the swallow bird takes annually on its migration.
Craik remembers first being fascinated with the bird, belonging to the Hirundinidae family, when he read the 1940 book What To Look For in the Country by Rodney Bennett.
“I read that when I was three,” Craik recalled. “My mother read that as a child, too.”
When taking a look at some of the lines of the poem, Craik said, “Ravaged lands…they can be war-torn lands like Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, or lands with famine and plague. I came up with that off the top of my head; it’s just luck.”
Craik is pleased with the honor, as well over 500 submissions come in annually vying for the prize, but it’s the process that matters most to him.
“The important thing is doing the writing. It feels a long way away from you,” Craik said of when sending off a poem.
“Richard Feynman, a nuclear physicist, said this about honors: “I don’t have any time for honors. You’ve already got the reward. The reward is making, doing, and discovering,” Craik shared. “I am pleased.”
“Swallows” will be the first poem of about 68 included in Alightings. Also in the works, is Six Prospects of Amsterdam. This title was already published in Romania in 2014, while Craik was working at Oradea University as a Fulbright Scholar.
“I’m planning to meet Marc Pauwels in September. The music has been completed,” Craik said of the project of combining Pauwels’ piano compositions with his poetry.
“I’ve given him some ideas…we are going to perform it at the University of Amsterdam, and hold student discussions,” Craik added.
They are also considering radio, digital, and physical, celebrations of the completed work, but nothing set in stone yet.
Craik is aiming for next year.
In the meantime, Craik is writing away; his blue doodle pad is very busy with fresh poetry about jet lag, a photograph of a hippie girl at Woodstock, and taping cassettes off of the radio.
“All in due course,” Craik said.
SWALLOWS
By Dr. Roger Craik
Swallows gathering on the wires.
Soon they will be gone,
lost to England, borne along
mysterious corridors of air
that draw them, self-impelled,
miraculously down the world,
past Portugal and Spain,
over Gibraltar, over the blue
Mediterranean, the ravaged lands,
down to Africa, the verdant Cape,
where it is spring again.
Spring and summer, spring and summer,
all their lives.
C.P. Cavafy Poetry Prize letter
Poetry International’s 2025 Cavafy Prize received more submissions than ever, and yet I knew, when “Swallows” came up on the screen for discussion, it would be one of the winners. With a few brief strokes this timeless lyric becomes indelible. It resonates deeply while maintaining its mystery. You have truly become a master of your craft.
This year, because of the quality of the submissions, we have divided the Cavafy Prize between three poets, and each of you will have two poems featured in the print journal, Poetry International 30.
Kind regards,
Sandra
