What some poetry prize judges say about John Bartlett's poetry:
'This impressive poem works delightfully with rhythm, alliteration and imagery throughout. The relatively short lines work as delicate steps, just as fragile and testing as a heron's steps. "Survival' hinges on the word "despite' that concludes with a message of optimism: "the brooding hope...triumphant." In all, a masterly poem. - Judges report, the Ada Cambridge Poetry Prize 2020
'"Pilgrimages of the Short-finned Eel" was simple arresting writing. It made me curious to read and reread it. Wonderful images like "earthskin rupture', "the tremble-tremble, The Great Shuddering"; somehow these phrases created a sense of the enormous energy of the life force that brings eels to our rivers and years later sends them back to the Coral Sea to spawn, and there is much more meaning in that poem than I have time for here.' - Judge Josephine Clark in Mundaring Poetry Competition 2021