OK folks! There has been some support for a competition on the blog; with this in mind I’m happy to set one. Some have suggested that there should be a “theme” as in previous competitions – as is my whim I’m going to ignore that and set something I personally think is far more difficult!

What do we, as poets, write about? After a very unscientific trawl through last month’s blogs and a little mathematical jiggery-pokery it seems that around 45% of blogs were “mood neutral.” i.e. neither happy nor sad, but simply observational. 44% were “mood negative” i.e. sad, melancholic, wistful etc. Only 11% were “mood positive” – happy, joyous, celebratory etc.

By now you can probably see where this is going . . .

We seem to have a predilection for sad subjects and introspection; perhaps not surprising.   For this competition I’m looking to up that 11%. I have always found expressing joy/happiness difficult in poetry and am repeatedly drawn to tragedy and sadness, I suspect that this is the same for many of us. Given the joyous festive season I’m therefore going to impose two rules:

1. The subject/mood of the poem should be upbeat/positive/joyous/happy/celebratory etc.
2. The poem must not be written in the first person, i.e. no “I”, “me” or “myself” poetry.

Other than those two stipulations your poem/s can be any style, length or subject.  Poems should be tagged “WOL comp” and submitted on the WOL blog between now and January 5^th after which time entries will close and voting commence.

Anyone can vote by emailing me at jtt@downeshouse.freeserve.co.uk  Comments on any of the work posted will be welcome, but will be reported anonymously.

The prize for the most votes will be a £10 book token which will wing its way to the winner on receipt of their contact details.

And that’s it! Please drop me a line if you have any queries; put on your best smiley face – and get writing!

Regards,

A.E.