Poetry Tips: Time Capsule

This week I want you to go back in time with your own writings and select the best poems you have to offer from the whole of your lifespan, maybe one per year or every five years. These may inspire you to write new ones, and in the end, place them all into an envelope or a box and “hide” them from yourself with a date for ten or twenty years into the future to be opened again. This will be like a time capsule of your best work and refresh you in later years when you find them again.

Good luck to all who try it, please stop in next Monday for another featured site…

The Sentinel Literary Quarterly

I received an e-mail from the contest judge, Claire Askew, from “across the pond” and I have copied-and-pasted the guidelines below for The Sentinel Literary Quarterly Contest:

"Very exciting news: I have been asked to judge a poetry competition! The Sentinel Literary Quarterly is a fabulous London-based magazine dedicated to publishing world literature: everything from poetry to plays, essays to reviews. Every quarter, they hold a poetry competition with a top prize of £100, to seek out and reward great writing. And I’m very pleased to announce that for the latest contest, they’ve asked me to be their poetry judge.
The contest is open to all — you can enter regardless of age, experience or your location in the world. The only rules are these:
* Poems must be 40 lines or less
* They only accept submissions in the English language
* Poems must be typed
* Identifying marks must not appear on the poems themselves
* You have to include an entry fee of £3 per poem — OR take advantage of a discount: 5 poems for £12.
What could you win?
* The first prize poem wins £100 and publication in Sentinel Literary Quarterly
* Second prize is £60, and third prize £40 — plus publication in Sentinel Literary Quarterly
* A further twelve highly-commended poems will also be published in the magazine
There are more details of how to enter, how to present your poems and what you can win here, at the competition’s homepage. The closing date is THURSDAY 25TH MARCH 2010 so get scribbling!
What will I be looking for?
As the contest’s judge, I’ll be looking for a variety of things in the winning poems. Firstly, a strong and original voice — any subject, however old and tired, can be reinvigorated by a fresh perspective, an engaging voice. I’ll also be looking for excellent wordsmithery — not necessarily anything flashy, but signs that the writer knows what language is all about, and how to weild it. I want ideas that make me think “damn, I wish I’d thought of that!”, and turns of phrase that excite and inspire me.
I know that so many of you ONS readers have the power to write work like this — I definitely think you’re all up to the challenge, and hey, I know none of you would say no to a free hundred quid, right? So I hope you’ll all get yourselves to the contest page and enter your work. This is a great contest: there’s no theme, and apart from length, no formal contraints. I’m excited to sift through what I’m sure will be a melting pot of themes, ideas and voices. Make sure yours is part of it!
To learn more about Sentinel Literary Quarterly and for details on entering on-line for their contest, see below:
http://www.sentinelpoetry.org.uk/slq/3.2/competitions/poetry2010april.htm"

Claire Askew’s site is below, where I got the details on the contest:

http://www.readthismagazine.co.uk/onenightstanzas/?p=1265

Good luck to all of you who enter, please stop in tomorrow for more Poetry Tips…

Poems Found By Poet Hound

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=173990
“Lament” by Edna St. Vincent Millay

http://arseniclobster.magere.com/211201.html
“Black Squirrel Poem” by Bill Yarrow

Thanks for clicking in, please drop in tomorrow for more Poetry Tips…

Sorry Everyone...

Sorry everyone, I ran out of time this weekend to finish reading a chapbook on my desk to feature it this week. I got busy working on some other projects and quite a few birthdays are in order this month as well. I’ll hopefully be back on track next week and I do have posts for the rest of the week so please click in tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…

Luminous Clarity Blog

This blog features poems and poetry tidbits by Lisa Espenmiller complete with poetic dedications and is a wonderful read, check it out at:

http://luminousclarity.blogspot.com/

Thanks for clicking in, please drop in tomorrow for another featured poet…