Skip to main content

Poetry24

If you've been both shocked and alarmed by the disturbing scenes on the streets of several UK towns and cities in the last few days (and what sane person hasn't?) a positive reponse might be to vent your feelings in a poem.

Poetry24 (http://www.poetry-24.blogspot.com/) "Where News is the Muse" could be just the outlet for your work. Launched in February 2011 by Martin Hodges and Clare Kirwan, you can find the following request on its Submission Guidelines Page.

"Do you have something to say about current events in the world? Can you say it evocatively, with passion, rage, compassion and/or humour? Can you make us see things from a wider perspective or take us right into the heart of the matter?"

If the answer is "Yes" to all these questions, then why not send them a poem? The detailed submission guidelines on the site stipulate a maximum of two poems to be sent to both editors separately, in the body of an email. Poems must not have been previously published, even on a blog and should be no longer than 40 lines. You are asked to provide a hyperlink to a recent online news story giving the background to what you are writing about, as well as your blog or website details and a 30 word biography.

Good luck if you do decide to submit something and let's pray for peace on our streets before any further lasting damage is done.


Comments

  1. Anonymous13 August 2011 at 06:41

    This sounds very interesting. There are a couple of poets in my online writing group: I'll give them the link. And yes, let's hope for peace. Selfishly, it's at time like these that I am rather grateful to live in La France Profonde.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Melissa Lawrence13 August 2011 at 19:29

    Things seem to have calmed down a bit which is good. I hope your friends find the link useful.

    ReplyDelete
  3. broken biro7 October 2011 at 07:58

    Hi Melissa - just stumbled across this blog post and wanted to say thanks for the mention. Poetry24 is still going strong and always looking fro submissions of topical poetry. Cheers, Clare

    ReplyDelete
  4. Melissa Lawrence8 October 2011 at 13:49

    Hi Clare. Great to hear from you. Keep up the good work with Poetry24.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shortlisted in the Writer's Toolkit Flash Fiction Competition

Hi everyone. A good writing week this week, despite the distractions of the cricket and the tennis, possibly because my portfolio career has been suspended, pending further enquiries (don't tell my patrons!) and I've been at my desk every night. Long may it continue! I said in my last post that I was recently shortlisted (top ten) in the Writer's Toolkit flash fiction competition. The competition brief was to write a short story of 150 words or less on the theme of 'Secrets'. My story actually came out at exactly 150 words because at the last minute, after I'd sealed the envelope, I suddenly panicked and decided that the wording of the rules could mean that the story had to be exactly 150 words. Mine was 149 if I remember correctly and it was surprisingly difficult to add that extra word! Apparently the competition attracted 182 entries (which I must admit was quite a surprise) and entries came from several European countries as well as the UK. I was particu
6 comments
Read more

Portfolio Career

I have been telling everyone recently that I now have a "portfolio career". Most people don't know what I mean by this (someone even said they'd have to "Google" it!) but it's really just a fancy way of saying that you have fingers in several different pies. I have been a "professional" writer since 1995 although I have always been a writer of some sort, ever since I was at school. During this time, I have stuck pretty religiously to writing and only occasionally had flights of fancy about getting a "proper" job. (And I still do. Only this time last week, I found myself offering to manage a jazz band!!) However, for various reasons, I've recently been seriously exploring other freelancing options that I can do alongside writing and have now decided to "rebrand" myself as a writer, a crafter and a musician. I also plan to carry on working on community newsletters and do something in the spiritual healing/growth area a
4 comments
Read more

Setting Quotas

Does anyone else set quotas for how much work they send out every week, month etc or is that just me? I decided a while back that I was probably never going to send anything out if I didn't set a quota and for various reasons I decided that six items a month was right for me. Like lots of ideas, it is probably good in theory and so far I have managed to keep to my quota. Unfortunately, the theory seems to fall down when I find myself (usually on the last day of the month!) desperately scratching around trying to find somewhere to send something in an effort to meet my quota. A few weeks ago, while in this predicament, I came across Healthy  magazine in a well-known health food store. I noticed that they offered fifty pounds worth of vouchers to spend in store for the writer of the star letter. Desperate to fulfill my quota and hopeful of winning the top prize, I duly sent off a letter. The email was returned by the "postmaster" for some reason, so more effort was requ
4 comments
Read more