The centenary of Manchester Cathedral’s bells provided the theme for this year’s poetry competition. First prize for 2025 went to Maximiliano Bus Kopp for his poem ‘Chubut, Chapel Chime.’

Dean Rogers Govender said that Kopp’s poem ‘transcends language and geography. The poet beautifully draws out the bell chimes beyond geography and nations. The distance of Chubut does not silence the bell’s chime in the ‘starlit chapel of his chest’. This has an endless appeal to the transcendent and joy that bells can bring to the human spirit.’

Second prize went to twelve-year-old Esme Alice Blue for her poem ‘Reaching Out,’ and third prize to Tessa Pike for ‘Wedding Bells.’

You can read the winning poem below.

Chubut, Chapel Chime

Mimosa, 1865: salt-bitten timbers, hymns softly hummed.
He lands where the Chubut gentles its limed green,
coirón rasps like wire on his boots; the fence sings a thin note.

He learns the light—white that rings on stone;
heat tastes of brass on the tongue.
Goat bells—brief bronzes—braid the brown air of the meseta;
their tin tintinnabulation
tunes the dusk to blue.

He says, “Cofia’r Cymru yn y wlad bell,” and hears it answer:
bell as distant, bell as bell—one word, two metals.
Far is a peal in the ear; distance, a chapel chime.

He opens acequias, sows barley, speaks softly of those
who went ahead on the voyage—
no harsh name for the hush that claimed them.

Sundays, tin roofs tick; the wind carries coal-scent,
and memory—mild as milk, keen as salt—
slips its hand into his: Gaiman not yet named,
Rawson newly hewn, the river a restless ribbon.

The steppe’s dry choir hums; a ewe coughs; a kid calls.

And in the small, starlit chapel of his chest
the bells begin again—
Cofia’r Cymru yn y wlad bell—
far, ringing, here.

A further 10 poems were highly commended… 

The judges also gave an Honourable Mention to Nare Vardumian’s poem ‘Bells.’ Nare is a sixteen-year-old student from Chuhuiv Lyceum № 6, Kharkiv Region, Ukraine.

The winning and commended poets are invited to attend and give readings at a prize giving ceremony at Manchester Cathedral on Sunday 25th January from 1pm – 4pm. A pamphlet featuring the poems will also be available on the night as will light refreshments.