A POEM which embraces the possibilities of space travel was among the winners of the 2016 James McCash Scots Poetry Competition.

Rab Wilson’s poem, Ayont the Sun, took the hills and lochs of his native Ayrshire as the starting point for a voyage of cosmic contemplation.

Meanwhile, his fellow winner Sheila Templeton, of Glasgow, considered the harsh agricultural past of the feeing-market and the sadness of a young woman, in the poignant personal narrative, Cottar Wife.

The annual competition, which awarded £875 to both winners, has been held in association with The Herald and Glasgow Universitiy for 14 years, and asks entrants to enter poems on a theme – with this year’s being “when change is lichtsome”.

Judges said the 149 entries tended to focus on individual reflection rather than on international tensions or political preoccupations.

Michael Stephenson of Bathgate won the £500 runner-up prize for Hogmanay. Three prizes of £250 went to Andrew McCallum of Biggar for Seeds in Flicht; Ann MacKinnon of Balloch for Shaddae Boxin, and Catherine Eunson of Glasgow for This Winter.

The judges were Professor Alan Riach, Chair of Scottish Literature at Glasgow University, Hamish MacDonald, Scots Scriever at the National Library of Scotland, and Jerald poetry editor Lesley Duncan, who said the many “accomplished and thoughtful” entries showed the Scots language was flourishing.

Winning entries will be featured in the Herald Poem of the Day slot this week. Ayont the Sun by Rab Wilson