Huge congratulations to Jeff Flesch, whose debut poetry collection, Nature Speaks of Love and Sorrow, is currently #1 New Release across two different categories in the Kindle store: #1 in Nature Poetry! #1 in Love Poetry! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BC87MYPW Available now from Amazon Thank you to all who have supported the book on its journey to publication,... Continue Reading →
I enjoyed writing and researching this challenge, and to an even greater degree, I enjoyed reading the varied and delightful responses. I am very grateful to judge Misky of Plumb-Lines for doing a job which I would have found near impossible: deciding on this week's winners. I now hand over to her for this week's... Continue Reading →
Nature plays an important role in the history of English poetry, from the time of Chaucer right up to the present day. Consider the opening lines of The Canterbury Tales: Whan that Aprill with his shoures sooteThe droghte of March hath perced to the roote,And bathed every veyne in swich licourOf which vertu engendred is... Continue Reading →
For this week's results, I am going to hand straight over to judge Nick Reeves: he both provided the artistic inspiration for the challenge, and took the time and skill to judge with patience and perception. It has been a great honour for me to work with such a talented artist and writer. I hope... Continue Reading →
This week's challenge is an Ekphrastic challenge, in other words, writing a poem in response to a work of art. This week's judge and three-time EIF Poetry Challenge winner, Nick Reeves, has provided the artwork featured in today's post, which will be your prompt. Ekphrastic Poetry The word 'ekphrastic' comes from the Ancient Greek ἐκφράζειν (ekphrázein) ,... Continue Reading →
The tanka form proved both enticing and challenging, no less for me (for examples, take a look at my Twitter Poetry from Week 3) than for those who took part. As a short form it may appear deceptively simple. Bearing this in mind, I was impressed with the high standard of entries. I now hand... Continue Reading →
As we have already explored the haiku form in a previous poetry challenge, this week I wanted to take a look at another Japanese form: tanka. If you thought a tanka was simply an extended haiku, think again! There is a lot more to the form than this. Read on to find out more... The... Continue Reading →
I think it's fair to say that this week's challenge has been the most challenging to date. I am judging by the amount of participants who told me the villanelle form had stretched them, as it did me: the first villanelle I wrote did not follow the traditional rhyme scheme, so I had to write... Continue Reading →
Happy New Year, poetry lovers! I'm excited to begin a whole new year of poetry challenges by examining a lyrical, dance-like poetic form: the villanelle. The form originated in France, though its name derives from the Italian villanella meaning 'a rustic/peasant song or dance.' It was originally a ballad-like pastoral poem with no fixed form,... Continue Reading →
Very early on in the first lockdown of this year, I wrote a poem called 'Poetry won't save you.' Well I'm here to testify that this year, poetry categorically has saved me. Without writing poetry and sharing it with others, without reading other people's poetry, I probably would have gone mad by now. Back in... Continue Reading →
