The National Poetry Competition

This is regarded as, I think, the biggest single poem competition in the world, certainly one of the biggest in terms of prizes and prestiege. The results came out on Friday and since this we are a poetry website, I thought a few talking points might be of interest to some members (and some good reads too!)

http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/competitions/npc/

Basically how it works is you can enter as many poems as you like (something like 6 pounds per entry). There were 12000 or more entries I think this year. They are judges anonymously by 3 professional poets, who decide a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place with some HM's also.

I entered with a last minute poem, had a very vague hope in the back of my mind for a HM but I would have been amazed if I'd have gotten anything. I find it interesting to read the styles of the winning poems and see trends in what is seen as fashionable or desirable in poetry in 2014, esp in the more professional side of things. The first 3 places were won by previously published poets.

Anyway, feel free to have a look at the website and check out the winning entries and say what you make of it and them :)

The winning poem

Bernard and Cerinthe
by Linda France

If a flower is always a velvet curtain
onto some peepshow he never opens,

it's a shock to find himself, sheltering
from the storm in a greenhouse,

seduced by a leaf blushing blue
at the tips, begging to be stroked.

He's caught in the unfamiliar ruffle
of knickerbockers or petticoat, a scent

of terror, vanilla musk. If he were
not himself, he'd let his trembling lips

articulate the malleability of wax;
the bruise of bracts, petals, purple

shrimps; seeds plump as buttocks,
tucked out of harm's way, cocos-de-mer

washed up off Curieuse or Silhouette.
But being Bernard, he's dumbstruck,

a buffoon in front of a saloon honey
high-kicking the can-can. Can't-can't.

He attempts to cool himself, thinking
about seahorses, Hippocampus erectus,

listening to the rain refusing to stop,
soft against the steamed-up glass.

I get all giddy about international poetry competitions because I dream of entering too but always end up not entering since I never get to write something technically pleasing before the deadline. :P I did join Poetry Society's competition for adolescents, which was free, because last year was the last year I'd be 18 years old. Sadly I can't join anymore now, and suffice to say of course I didn't make a chance.

(I recommend anyone interested in poetry competitions and younger than 18 y.o. to look up Foyle's Poetry Contest.)

I make a habit out of reading the winners and my reactions vary from being in awe and inspired and simply not agreeing, but that's probably because I'm biased (not so keen of a too clogged, detailed style full of adjectives, which has been popular in winning some international competitions).

I like where this year's poems are heading, though (I took a quick glance through the commended poems). I like clever wordplay and a modern but romantic atmosphere in poetry. What I think is popular these days are a neat balance of poetic wording and every-day language. What's notable is, despite free verse being dominant, there seems to be great focus on meter (and for some reason, a format consisting of couplets seems to be popular too). [On a side note, I think I would love some workshop on meter because most of PnQ, including myself, seems to have a hard time with proper meter lol.] Oh and I think a style of what I like to call bucketlist-poetry is starting to emerge. I sometimes like to write as if I'm simply summing things up too. I wonder if this could be considered a good or bad thing, because whilst this style of writing seems easy to read and easy to punch you in the face, has some nice rhythm too ... I wonder if it's not too lazy a style. :P And of course there's the risk of going everywhere and nowhere with the imagery, making individual lines worthy of attention, but making the reader forget about its whole. At least that's what I feel when I read "Bernard and Cerinthe".

Forgive my babbling, I can't help myself when it comes to this subject.

Lol...

Proper meter... Its hard.
I get to practice with it in allpoetry... Its fun. Especial its fun to read poems with good meter and to look at the cfitiques those who know about it give.

We should do something like that here. A workshop would be great.

Edit... I just glanced through the thread. Be back to read later.

I still think the best way to learn about these devices is forcing oneself to write formed poetry. Me and my preference for contemporary style mostly shies away from such work, but I mostly write formed poetry just to practice on technique. :P

It's hard because, even though the theory behind meter isn't hard to understand, I feel like it's highly dependant of how you pronounce your words. When I speak, my accent/intonation goes all over the place. (It is said to go from American to German to Chinese to Dutch to poorly-imitated-brittish, within a few sentences). Odd pronunciuation brings odd stresses lol.

Thanks for sharing Colm

Sorry, I just came back to this thread.

To huntress:

"but I mostly write formed poetry just to practice on technique. :P "

You do? can I see a few poems? a sonnet, perhaps? :P
I also just practice from time to time, it's harder to create vivid imagery when we are restricted with the meter. It takes me about an hour to finish a shakespearean sonnet and it's not even perfect because the volta is suppose to take place in the ninth line. I always end up not calling them sonnets just because I don't do the volta where it needs to be and also because the iambic it's not perfect.
but as a practice exercise it's great, it helps enhance brevity.

I also agree, the best way to learn is to practice, but also critique and comment on others who are learning. Hehe
because those who are learning tend to have hiccups in the meter so it's easier to identify that the meter is not well done.

as far as where the pronunciation is supposed to be, I use a dictionary where it highlights where the stress of the word is supposed to be. I tend to mispronounce a lot of words so the dictionary at the moment is my best friend. It helps me learn how to pronounce words, I learn slowly but surely. . . ( or at least that's what I want to believe hehe)

P.s. I heard one of you recitations of one of your poems, and your accent sounded fine to me. I like the metaphor in the poem too.

That's okay I'm always slow with replying too. :P

Well I didn't mean to sound like I write a lot of formed poetry, because truly, I don't. Last time I wrote a sestina (it took me about a month), and it's traumatised me, haha. But I've been telling myself to explore more formed poetry from now on, hopefully you'll see some on my profile.

Even though forms restrict our creativity, perhaps it could also be seen as an opportunity to think differently. Even when writing free verse I think I might be becoming less creative because I've become so familiar with certain images inside of my head, which have gained meaning to me, that I find myself going back to them all the time. It's true that you're not allowed to play with structure anymore but rhyming requires some creativity too. :)

I think an hour is quite fine to write a Shakespearean sonnet, especially if you're being so conscious about your meter. Good idea about using a dictionary. I mostly use http://www.thefreedictionary.com because there's this button I can click on so that a voice pronounces the words for me (both American and Brittish English).

The thing is, reciting goes fine because I get to concentrate on my pronunciation. When you speak with me casually I sound horrible. :P

The winning poem"

Reading that poem I lost interest to read on after the 3rd line... Does that makes me a bad man??

I lost interest pretty much from the beginning on the winning poem. I am not saying that it is not good. Just not my taste I guess. I have been told that I need to work on formats with my writings however, I write literally what I think and feel. I prefer to draw an emotional response from my readers. I believe that I would lose a lot of the method to my madness as it were LOL, if I concentrated on to much format.
Although, I am still learning, it never hurts to learn. Is this wrong way to think for a new writer?