Friends of Poetry Space

Become a “Friend of Poetry Space” for just £25 per year. 

Dear Friends,

Thank Poetry Space has been a little quiet this year as we have had some illness in the family.

However I have now created a new format for membership. see below.

Sue Sims

 

I  am changing the terms now for Friends of Poetry Space. If anyone feels they have not been adequately rewarded for their annual fee please get in touch and I will send a complimentary bundle of books.

From now on anyone who is passionate about poetry and ants to help us will receive 

  • one free entry to our new yearly Poetry Space Prize – the prize is publication of a small collection of poems in pamphlet format. There are two categories: 1 – first collections, 2- poets with at least one previously published collection.
  • a surprise bundle of books once a year with your opening membership
  • a poetry space bookmark 

 

Friends of  Poetry Space annual membership helps us to continue to produce high quality publications and widen participation in poetry related activities and  you reap rewards for your support!

Join by going to online shop

Free to enter Members’ Only Competitions

January 2018

For inspiration for a theme for this latest member’s only competition I just had a quick look around my room and spotted a book title The Timekeeper.

Please write a poem with this title please. The deadline is 28th February.

The winner will receive the Poetry Space pamphlet, Flowers in the Blood by Beverley Ferguson.

Happy writing, 

Sue 

 

 

October 2017

The theme for this next members’ only competition is Light. Interpret any way you wish 

Up to two winners will receive a copy of Margaret Eddershaw’s beautiful book, Catching Light and see their poems published here.

 

Please submit poems by October 31st 2017.

Light Bulbs

 

Weeks ago, Christmas lights

Were boxed & back in attics,

Shuttered for eleven months at home.

Yet, naked in the earth’s basement rooms,

Incandescent daffodils mark time:

They wait.

 

There comes an equinoctial moment when

Flayed of skins, dried,

Stripped of frills,

Even these will swell:

Draw water

From chilled wells below.

 

If then they are plugged

Into the sizzling grid of the sun,

No one sees them smoke & glow—

No one knows except oak roots, rose roots…

Until March light pokes inquisitive fingers into the loam:

Draws up their answers.

 

Then those dimmed bulbs come on:

Yellow, palest white,

Shades fringed with orange edges,

Rimmed, ruffled in soft layers,

Taffeta trimmed.

Come April, all the lights are on again.

 

Lizzie Ballagher

 

 

 

 

March 2017

Walls make an interesting subject for a poem. Walls can contain, divide or protect. Walls can be painted on, used to build houses. Walls can be modern brick or made of stone. walls can be solid entities, or simply barriers in your imagination.
Please send in poems on the theme of  ‘walls’ to win a copy of Chester City Walls by Julia D.McGuinness. Julia’s book was a best seller for Poetry Space in 2016.

Poems submitted must be 30 lines or less.

 

 

 

Deadline:  30th April

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 2014

To celebrate the launch of Roger Elkin’s collection Chance Meetings we invited Poetry Space Friends to write a travel poem. There was a wide remit; journeys both personal or exotic. I am delighted to say that the winner is Johanna Boal.

A 540km Cycling Route

At Heathrow Airport

Mike Oldfield is playing

Tubular Bells,

telling me about a Mandolin.

But all the time I’m thinking

about SE Asia

In case you’re ever wandering

just outside Bangkok

stay east, an unbeaten

cycle path takes you to

Ho Chi Minh City.

Tracks that pass shacks,

rice fields and natives smile at you.

 

70km left to Siam Reap,

I pickup stones at Angkor Wat

for my sitting room.

A group of girls sell pineapple for $1

with chilli and salt, I buy them

because I stared at their ears.

Local smiling boys see the sale

take me to the coconut trees

to buy fresh Tarantulas, I don’t buy

they laugh at me!

The lovely Water Buffalos don’t move

nearby are mines in the fields.

Cycling on to Phnom Penh sweaty

ready for a swim, but it’s from walking

on bones and clothes at the killing fields.

 

Still cycling-

to the border of Vietnam.

Lots of bridges at the Mekong Delta

busy, a raft steering logs

dripping wet in all shapes, sizes

selling at the markets.

Pedalling hard into Old Saigon,

a two day rest before I go home.

© Johanna Boal

Here is Johanna getting comfy with a signed copy of Chance Meetings – her prize for having her poem selected by Roger:

 

Johanna has recently had her own pamphlet collection, Cardboard City  published by Poetry Space.  Both books are available to buy in the online shop.