National Honour · August 2026
🇹🇿
Amulike-Shangwe Isaac Chengula
🇹🇿 Tanzania · leading poet of the nation's field
“Perfectly Imperfect”
60out of 100
I have spent days trying to compare
Roses and tulips,
I'd strike a debate saying
Roses are better than tulips.
What I didn't know was that people give
Opinions based on perspective,
Preference
And whatever
Whether it's roses or tulips,
Both are flowers
Growing on the same earth ,
So why rank them
Despite the diversity of views?
Because beauty tends to be subjective,
Focusing on one definition of it
makes us miss out on the rest.
Roses have thorns,
Tulips have petals that fall
See, they all have flaws,
So what are they without their flaws?
From the judges
A sincere but prosaic meditation on subjective beauty that explains its moral rather than embodying it, with loose structure and plain diction.
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Amulike-Shangwe Isaac Chengula retains all rights · published with the poet's byline as a National Honour
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