WRITORYNational Honour · August 2026
🇦🇪
Lois Olson
🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates · leading poet of the nation's field
“To Wait”
70out of 100
Sand silken, whispering in the wind over the tops of the dunes
Ants anxious, tracing tiny tracks on the ripples
Sun simmering, hammering heat home in the cloudless noon
Palms pray, branches breathing, swaying slightly behind earthen walls
Silence sighs, lingering with longing for the treasured tune
I am aching, and I am the antidote
From the judges
A well-shaped, musical desert meditation whose alliteration occasionally shows its seams but whose final turn earns real emotional force.
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Lois Olson retains all rights · published with the poet's byline as a National Honour