From Peter Jeffrey's judge's report:
"PATERNAL LESSONS by A.R LEVETT shows how negatively the older macho culture accepts a pattern of life that is inherently sterile if not outright abusive in the advice it wants to relay to the coming generations. It moves through a recognisable pattern of quatrains which reflect chauvinism, wage slavery and greed, one eyed factionalism, alcoholism and hospitalisation and parental neglect of the recognition of childhood achievements, to a final three liner betrayal with perhaps incestual ambiguity of shocking intensity. Full marks for the control of graduated revelation that generates a superb climax."
Here is the poem:
PATERNAL LESSONS
Lessons from my father:
women are nice to look at and touch,
the only worthwhile ones
are those who bare their bodies
in trashy magazines;
swelter in a factory
where your talents atrophy
seize every cent
as if everyone owes you;
football is life,
barrack for the Eagles,
abuse the television
when your team is losing;
scull so much you
pass out mid-conversation,
your committed hospital stay
an honour badge;
leave your reserved seat empty
at your expectant child’s
award-earning ceremonies
to escape on sudden vacation.
The hardest lesson of all
one drunken night
I prefer your sister.