A quick mention for the deadline for Winchester Poetry Festival’s poetry competition – July 31st One of the UK’s premier competitions, and with a prize for Hampshire poets. Link below. https://www.winchesterpoetryfestival.org/prize
My day job is proving very busy at the moment, so I’m just going to share a few competition post updates this week: Here’s one via Vole Books – ends on the 1st August
Delighted to have a poem in the latest edition of Poetry & All That Jazz, run by Barry Smith and Chichester Poetry. I haven’t posted much here recently – I have been a bit under the cosh with work and Portsmouth FC writer in residence stuff (more of that later), but anyway, hope you like the poem
On the NHS’ 75th birthday, rather than going into a long rant – what’s the point? – we all know what the Tories have done to the country in the name of austerity over the last 13 years, and how this has impacted on all our public services, and not just the NHS, I thought I’d re-share this poem I wrote to be displayed in one of the Covid wards at QA Hospital. I hope…
A quick mention for the Vent Literary Festival on the Isle of Wight. It runs between the 22nd and 25th of July, and this is the second year this festival in Ventnor has run. Details here: https://vfringe.co.uk/events/vent-spoken-and-written-word-2023/?fbclid=IwAR28HlpChMgdvzrxVFcNXhs46jzJ0HmHx5AMEG22-O8TVzNrZTGkBN4-ILc
A quick mention of an event happening in Portsmouth on June 24th. As with Sunday’s post, this information is lifted from a Facebook post. Looks like an excellent event, and for an important cause. Just helping to spread the word. This Iconic location within the heart of the city will be hosting a vibrant event of rappers, poets, musicians and much more exciting entertainment. 432-Nomads and Portsmouth City of Sanctuary will be taking you on…
A quick plug for the Chichester Festival Fringe From their Facebook post… EXCITING POETRY AT CHICHESTER FRINGE! Don’t miss two fantastic and entertaining events. POETRY TAKE-OFF! sees nine poets go head to head to be declared the Bard of the Day on Wed 14 June, 5.30pm, Draper’s Yard, The Hornet, Chichester, PO19 7JG. Poets include Denise Bennett, Pratibha Castle and 7 others. Who will catch your eye? POETRY IN MOTION – ON THE ROAD. Jazz,…
The photograph that accompanies this post is of the old railway crossing in Copnor, where a bridge now stands. Apart from large scale slum / post war clearances and rebuilds, many of the changes to city streets are piecemeal. A junction realigned, an old factory knocked down, a local shop converted into a house. My grandmother used to run a general store in Porchester Road, North End. I was born after it was closed, shop…
Here’s a poem that was first published in Poetry and all that Jazz last year. The title is meant to be ambiguous. I wanted to use the title to add a layer or layers of different potential interpretations. What decision, and who has made it? And does the ending refer to the decision itself or the narrators reaction to it? Is it a reaction to the Kestrel or the prey? Or is the whole poem…
A couple of short poems that appeared on a tweet last week – from the latest edition of Renesme Literary (a Twitter based publication). They are part of a sequence of primarily prose based poems, with a few hiabun thrown in, linking themes around driving, childhood, mental health and Tangerine Dream. Mainstream it isn’t! The sequence is now done, so it’s a case of working out how to get it published now.