Just reminding you that Write Out Loud has another, home-grown poetry competition, launched by our own Graham Sherwood, with the Olympics the theme. All you need to do is blog a poem or poems, and tag them “WOL Olympic Competition.” To get you in the mood, here are a couple of recent Olympics efforts: one by Scottish poet and Newcastle University academic WN Herbert, The Blazing Grater, as the torch passed through Tyneside; and the other by Barnsley poet Ian McMillan, as the relay went through his home town. Now pick up the torch: get writing!

More Olympic poetry news: five leading poets were commissioned by the Olympic Delivery Authority and Winning Words to create poetry to be installed permanently in the Olympic Park. They include Carol Ann Duffy's poem, Eton Manor, which can be found at the entrance to the Paralympic wheelchair tennis venue. The poem captures the spirit of the venue's previous existence as the Eton Manor Boys' Club. Lemn Sissay has written about the Bryant and May match factory which still exists next to the Olympic Park and the first trade-union strike, which took place there. John Burnside has focused on Sylvia Pankhurst, the suffragette – and keen cyclist – who worked in Bow for some years. Caroline Bird's poem is about the life and work of Joan Littlewood, the life-force behind Stratford East theatre, and who in the 1960s had a vision for an arts centre – never to be built – on what is now the Olympic Park. Jo Shapcott's commission reflects on the history of the Olympic site and the eight kilometres of waterways that run in and around it. You can read all the poems here