Picador Prize Update

My prospects of a state funeral and an eternal resting place in Westminster Abbey receded slightly further last night on receipt of the e-mail regretting that I had not been selected for the shortlist of the Picador Prize.
They were heart-broken, obviously, but went on to explain about the 'overwhelming number of entries received, and of their extremely high quality'. At least several of which were better than mine.
You have to be tough in this business, suffering such arrows of outrageous fortune, but I'm being brave about it.
It is, of course, much more a blessing in disguise. It would have been a helluva prank to have been on the shortlist with the satisfying feeling that one had prevented somebody else from being on it but winning the prize could have been disastrous. Seeing the book reviewed in august places and commented on by very important people, perhaps having to promote the book by turning up and doing readings, even sitting behind a desk to sign copies. I couldn't have done all that and, more than anything else, even if we could have stretched my poems into a 'full-length' collection, there would never be enough for any kind of follow up ever.
So I will keep a look out on their website for the samples of the shortlisted poets so that we can see if any of them are any good. The premise of the competition is sound. There is bound to be one or two poets out there worthy of this contract.
The reverse is probably also true. There must be numerous poets with book contracts that should never be seen in print again. I'd volunteer to judge that one.