tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84279362024-03-13T22:09:20.780+00:00THE BLOGAZETTEnews. announcements. literature. reviews & opinionsThe Blogmasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010095525252838309noreply@blogger.comBlogger290125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427936.post-89866599569216137762021-06-01T11:40:00.001+00:002021-06-01T11:40:40.156+00:00Ebonyi massacre: Fulani herdsmen attacked 7 Igbo villages, 3000 persons displaced<a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/06/ebonyi-massacre-fulani-herdsmen-attacked-7-igbo-villages-3000-persons-displaced/">Ebonyi massacre: Fulani herdsmen attacked 7 Igbo villages, 3000 persons displaced</a>: THE attack carried out by suspected herdsmen in the boundary area of Ebonyi/Benue last Sunday affected seven vilages of Ndigwe, Ataloga, Odokem, Ekile, Nduobasi,, Ekpufu and Obakota, Vanguard can authoritatively report.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja5phArOAh5muGqLKBIVpiFuTCmMQmY5QkNLmeppLvE55cdQcWXC0ye53KXg-n4ciaY9I_LVwdrdr7fJrs0Y2OgL2jNBohVPq09cA_aj26eEpRYsGy4anEcClgTgWhrOFM1gd8nQ/s1578/Boris_Johnson_official_portrait_%2528cropped%2529.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1578" data-original-width="1122" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja5phArOAh5muGqLKBIVpiFuTCmMQmY5QkNLmeppLvE55cdQcWXC0ye53KXg-n4ciaY9I_LVwdrdr7fJrs0Y2OgL2jNBohVPq09cA_aj26eEpRYsGy4anEcClgTgWhrOFM1gd8nQ/s320/Boris_Johnson_official_portrait_%2528cropped%2529.jpg" /></a></div>
People living in Britain are complex. A lot of people are not obeying the rules about social distancing, face covering and washing/sanitising hands. <div><br /></div><div>In the last few weeks I have taken several essential journeys by bus
and half the passengers have no face covering. They sneeze and cough into the palms of their hands and then hold on to the rails without even bothering to sanitise their hands. </div><div><br /></div><div>I am ashamed to have been on a bus once and two Igbo people
(my own people) with no face covering commented on those who wore masks: </div><div><br /></div><div>"Ndia yiri mask ha adichaa ka ewu" (These people wearing masks look like goats). </div><div><br /></div><div>"Hapu ihea. Oya but oya oyibo" (Leave this thing. It is white man's disease). </div><div><br /></div><div>I have seen also, old white couples and Asian couples, clearly vulnerable, riding without face coverings sneezing and coughing. Spreading this thing.
I had to ask one bus driver why half the passengers on the bus had no face covering. He shrugged his shoulders and said they might be exempt and that it was not his job to police people wearing face covering. I would have thought the bus drivers would not let anyone on who did not have a face covering or evidence that they are exempt. </div><div><br /></div><div>Now the virus has mutated again. The new strain in 70% more transmissible. It is spreading in London like wild fire.
We are now in another lockdown with loads of loopholes to give the economy a chance to breathe whilst giving power to Covid. </div><div><br /></div><div>Everybody is blaming Boris Johnson. </div><div><br /></div><div>Everywhere you listen, people are saying Team Boris is shit. Really? </div><div><br /></div><div>The truth is, if the people living in Britain don't change their ways,
if people in Britain do not take Coronavirus seriously,
and this is after 67,000 people have died (Official, massaged figures! We all know it is more likely 100,000 deaths since they only count those who die within 28 days of testing positive, so, those who die 29 - 50 days after testing positive do not die from Covid.)
It will get uglier and deadlier. </div><div><br /></div><div>Whatever decision Boris John takes, whether he locks down too late or relaxes restrictions too soon, he is always going to be wrong. </div><div><br /></div><div>All us us living in this country must play our parts.
And for the critics who think Boris Johnson spends a lot of time doing nothing. He is a politician after all, and as John le Carre once said; "If there is one eternal truth of politics, it is that there are always a dozen good reasons for doing nothing." I don't think he spends a lot of time doing nothing. I think he lacks the courage to give us bad news and only spills it when he no longer has a choice or has failed to wish it all away. </div><div><br /></div><div>It is down to us. Hands. Face. Space. <a href="https://theblogazette.nnoromazuonye.com/"><i>The Blogazette</i></a>.</div><div><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<br /><br />
<a href="https://sentinelquarterly.com/competitions/#.XxydEfD5Ge8.blogger">Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition - international, open, poetry contest</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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I just thought I should share it. Enjoy.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Nf4XxnL4lPk" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<br />
In truth, there has not been reason for us not to shake hands in the past. A good, strong handshake can help foster friendship and trust. As a preacher, I always stood at the exit of the church to wish congregants well after the service, and I shook everybody's hand as they left. This has of course stopped since the Covid-19 Pandemic.<br />
<br />
Social distancing however was not always possible, if like me, you work in Central London. I would get on a crowded Southeastern Railway train from Welling or Woolwich Arsenal to Charing Cross, then change to an overcrowded Northern Line tube train to Goodge Street and then walk to the office. Fresh air was only possible after Goodge Street.
These journeys were torture, especially as there was hardly a day that the Southeastern trains did not pause between stations due to signalling problems, passenger action or faulty trains. Each time the train stopped for an uncertain length of time, uncomfortable passengers breathed fast, and coughed and coughed, rendering millions of bacteria or viruses homeless or seeking new homes.<br />
<br />
These uncomfortable train journeys continued, even after Covid-19 hit the England as the government hesitated over the decision to ask us to stay at home and work from home. For me, it was only eight days ago we were asked to work from home. In the six weeks prior to this, I spent the days praying and covering my family with prayers; my wife out teaching students she could not be sure observed the safety rules outside of school, my older sons and daughter out to school, where they interacted with teachers and other kids who may not have been observing the safety rules, and my youngest son at the childminder's.<br />
<br />
Now we are all at home and relatively safe.
I use the word 'relatively' because once or twice a week, my wife or I go to the shops to buy foodstuff. The problem is that with all the devastation Covid-19 has dealt out, people do not really maintain the social distancing rules. I have had to ask people to step back and to use the guide lines some of the supermarkets have provided instore to keep people at safe distance from each other.<br />
<br />
It will help all of us during this Covid-19 pandemic to practice these good habits and to carry on with them after we have triumphed over the virus, because we don't know what will come after coronavirus.<br />
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*******</div>
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Stay at home | Protect the NHS | Save lives | Wash your hands | Obey social distancing rules | Don't touch your face with unwashed hands.</div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />
Nnorom Azuonye 27.3.20<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<a href="http://www.sentinelquarterly.com/competitions/#.WpYExKayHmM.blogger">Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition - international, open, poetry contest</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<a href="http://sentinelquarterly.com/competitions/#.WpT_qToA2Vs.blogger">Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition - international, open, poetry contest</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<a href="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTH_GMyisiIHAuuIi5oqHGN3RKOlK1JVA7oajFVT3xkJd8AkRfF" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="174" data-original-width="290" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTH_GMyisiIHAuuIi5oqHGN3RKOlK1JVA7oajFVT3xkJd8AkRfF" /></a></div>
<div align="justify">
</div>
<div align="justify">
One of my closest friends, Raashid, is a Muslim. Whenever the
kind of atrocity that was unleashed at London Bridge on June 3rd, 2017 occurs,
Raashid would always insist that the perpetrators are not Muslims. He would
insist that no true Muslim would lay into the innocent going about their
businesses and stab them to death, chanting “This is for Allah”. This argument
may make sense if we allow ourselves to accept that Islam is a religion of
peace. The reality, however, is that the more these horrible acts of violence
are committed in the name of their religion and Allah, and we don’t get
convincing condemnation of the acts from top Muslims in authority, we struggle
to know exactly what to believe.</div>
<div align="justify">
<br /></div>
<div align="justify">
The statement by Harun Khan, Secretary General of the Muslim
Council of Britain is welcome, but is very carefully crafted not to ruffle
feathers. We need stronger condemnation of the terrorists and a clearer
distancing of Islam from these people, if like my friend Raashid suggests, these
people are not Muslims. If this kind of clarity is not achieved, there is a
likelihood that people will continue to treat all Muslims with suspicion.</div>
<div align="justify">
<br /></div>
<div align="justify">
The perpetrators of the London Bridge attacks were killed
without knowing for sure if the attacks were for Allah or for their friends and
family members killed during one of Britain’s interventions in an Islamic
country. We have to look into the possibility that these are reprisal attacks
avenging the deaths of loved ones. Generally nobody seems to care when hundreds
and thousands of ordinary citizens in Iraq, Libya, or any other Islamic country
Britain and allies have attacked in the name of democracy or freedom for the
people. We simply carry on because we believe that these are just collateral
costs of the attacks. We forget that the dead have surviving relatives who may
not share our political ideologies.</div>
<div align="justify">
<br /></div>
<div align="justify">
Nnorom Azuonye</div>
<div align="justify">
04.06.17</div>
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</script></div>The Blogmasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010095525252838309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427936.post-23137175775968611712016-01-30T05:28:00.002+00:002016-01-30T05:28:24.826+00:00Nigerian critics of Nigeria<div data-contents="true">
<div class="_45m_ _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="atq0b-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="atq0b-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Nigeria has dynasties of bad
leaders,</span></span></span></div>
<div class="_45m_ _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="d65gt-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="d65gt-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">but suffers more from an
over-abundance </span></span></span></div>
<div class="_45m_ _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="1o399-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="1o399-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">of horrible critics of bad
leaders.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span data-offset-key="1g6q5-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">These voices,
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div class="_45m_ _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="bvjd7-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="bvjd7-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">pure pestilence, are
not themselves </span></span></span></div>
<div class="_45m_ _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="c6pae-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="c6pae-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">blameless credible
alternatives.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span data-offset-key="17ajf-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We will never know if they
can be better </span></span></span></div>
<div class="_45m_ _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="1aeuv-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="1aeuv-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">than the targets of their
verbal fire</span></span></span></div>
<div class="_45m_ _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="2pk1h-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="2pk1h-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">their names never get on
ballot papers.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span data-offset-key="4cier-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Facebook and Twitter are
fertile grounds</span></span></span></div>
<div class="_45m_ _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="7us64-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="7us64-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">breeding these driving
instructors </span></span></span></div>
<div class="_45m_ _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="27i8c-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="27i8c-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">who cannot or will not
drive,</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span data-offset-key="dn6c0-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">so things in Nigeria will
remain the same</span></span></span></div>
<div class="_45m_ _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="5fump-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="5fump-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">or get worse - unless these
bright men </span></span></span></div>
<div class="_45m_ _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="eg3aq-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="eg3aq-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">and wise women come forth -</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span data-offset-key="7svdd-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">away from Facebook and
Twitter</span></span></span></div>
<div class="_45m_ _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="4uj07-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="4uj07-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">to change Nigeria in deeds, </span></span></span></div>
<div class="_45m_ _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="4uj07-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="4uj07-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
not just words,</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span data-offset-key="8et9k-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">to liberate the
nation</span></span></span></div>
<div class="_45m_ _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="4s35b-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="4s35b-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">from the old grist clogging her
mill - </span></span></span></div>
<div class="_45m_ _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="3fbk6-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="3fbk6-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">all ‘sais’ will be sighs
indeed.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="_45m_ _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="3fbk6-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="3fbk6-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">- Nnorom
Azuonye</span></span></span></div>
<div class="_45m_ _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="3fbk6-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="3fbk6-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">30.01.2016</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
</span></div>
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</script></div>The Blogmasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010095525252838309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427936.post-89924503230921018802015-11-19T03:30:00.001+00:002015-11-19T03:30:30.521+00:00Charlie Sheen reveals he is HIV-positive<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBn6Dc5.img?h=373&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=822&y=534" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBn6Dc5.img?h=373&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=822&y=534" height="206" width="320" /></a></div>
<div data-contents="true">
<div class="_209g _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="a8hg5-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="a8hg5-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
<div class="_209g _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="4ac2n-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="4ac2n-0-0">Damn! When I saw the news a couple of days ago, I gasped, 'so it is Charlie, sad.' </span></div>
<div class="_209g _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="4ac2n-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="4ac2n-0-0"><br /></span></div>
<div class="_209g _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="4ac2n-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="4ac2n-0-0">For weeks there have been these press reports about a big Hollywood star living with HIV. Pressure was mounting for his identity to be revealed. Then Charlie did the courageous thing; he went on TV and told the whole world of his illness. </span></div>
<div class="_209g _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="4ac2n-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="4ac2n-0-0"><br /></span></div>
<div class="_209g _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="4ac2n-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="4ac2n-0-0">The guy has balls the size of football. I know many people are trying to paint him as some kind of monster for keeping his HIV status secret for 4 years, but then who wouldn't? It is not an like an award to shout about.</span></div>
<div class="_209g _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="c6gjo-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="c6gjo-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
<div class="_209g _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="48e7h-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="48e7h-0-0">People with HIV are still stigmatised. Incidentally, last week at Barnehurst Methodist Church I preached about the different kinds of prisons people can be in, and Charlie has been in this prison for over four years, afraid of the isolation he will experience as people will be very cautious about the way they make contact with him. He kept his condition secret because of the HIV-associated stigma and because he wanted his identity to remain Charlie Sheen and not 'that guy with HIV'</span></div>
<div class="_209g _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="48e7h-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="48e7h-0-0"><br /></span></div>
<div class="_209g _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="48e7h-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="48e7h-0-0">Charlie is a good and talented actor and has given many of us many years of excellent entertainment. He has also been in the news a lot for the wrong reasons; the drugs, the wild partying, the alcohol, the call girls. In a world less sensitive, some people will say he had it coming or that they are not surprised, but nobody deserves to get ill.</span></div>
<div class="_209g _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="48e7h-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="48e7h-0-0"><br /></span></div>
<div class="_209g _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="48e7h-0-0">
Many voices have called on Charlie to use his diagnosis to raise awareness about HIV, to let people know it can affect anyone, and that the way he handles his status post-public revelation can also help battle the stigma and ignorance associated with HIV and AIDS.</div>
<div class="_209g _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="48e7h-0-0">
<a href="http://www.msn.com/en-gb/movies/news/a-hard-three-letters-to-absorb-charlie-sheen-reveals-he-is-hiv-positive/ss-AAdTX0x?ocid=spartanntp" target="_blank">Read more here </a></div>
<div class="_209g _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="48e7h-0-0">
<br /></div>
<div class="_209g _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="48e7h-0-0">
My prayers and support are with Charlie at this time.</div>
<div class="_209g _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="48e7h-0-0">
<br /></div>
<div class="_209g _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="48e7h-0-0">
-NNOROM AZUONYE </div>
<div class="_209g _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="48e7h-0-0">
19.11.15</div>
</div>
t. <a href="https://twitter.com/nnoromazuonye" target="_blank">@nnoromazuonye</a> f: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/nnorom.azuonye" target="_blank">nnorom.azuonye</a><br />
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">“So never worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow
will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” - Matthew
6:34</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">There is a song that comes to mind:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Why worry, when you can pray</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Trust in Jesus and he will make a way.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">If you have an impending surgery, examination,
travel, interview, or childbirth for instance, the human thing is that you will
be anxious. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The truth however is that worrying will not make things better or
guarantee your safety. The best way to take worry out of your life is to be
prepared. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">If you have an examination coming up and you don’t study, pray all
you want, Jesus will not make you pass that examination. In fact he will
consider you a person wishing to reap what you did not sow. Study hard and he
will not only open your mind to understand what you are studying but he will
ensure that you not only get to your exam venue safely and on time, but that
you actually remember when it counts, all that you have learnt. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">In every area
of your life, put in the work you need to, do your own part and leave the rest
to God. Sometimes it may seem that all the roads are blocked despite your hard
work, that’s when the Lord takes over. Do your bit and believe completely that
he will make a way for you where there seems to be no way. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Only believe, put on
your best clothes and move right ahead. Trust in Jesus and victory will be
yours.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Have a blessed day. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Nnorom Azuonye </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">19.10.2015</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div>The Blogmasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010095525252838309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427936.post-71054183570149603912015-08-30T19:53:00.001+00:002015-08-30T19:53:16.172+00:00Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition | International Poetry ContestSentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition (August 2015)<br /><br />
Closing date: 31st August, 2015<br /><br />
For original, previously unpublished poems in English language, on any subject, in any style, up to 50 lines long. <br /><br />
Prizes: First: £200.00, Second: £100.00, Third: £50.00, Highly Commended: £20 x 3, Commended: £10 x 3.<br /><br />
Click here to enter: http://sentinelquarterly.com/competitions/poetry/index.htm <br /><br />
<br /><br />
<a href="http://sentinelquarterly.com/competitions/poetry/index.htm#.VeNfEZyh9g4.blogger">Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition | International Poetry Contest</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div>The Blogmasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010095525252838309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427936.post-88414036134289262202015-06-29T04:09:00.001+00:002015-06-29T04:14:51.988+00:00In Christ Alone by Stuart Townsend with Lyrics in HD"In Christ Alone" was one of the hymns the members of the Junior Church chose for their anniversary service at the Abbey Wood Methodist Church on 28th June, 2015. This song always has a profound effect on me. I truly felt privileged to have been asked to lead that service. - Nnorom Azuonye 29.6.2015<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ouGuG97l2RY" width="480"></iframe><br />
<br />
Songwriters: Getty, Julian Keith; Townend, Stuart Richard;<br />
<br />
In Christ alone my hope is found<br />
He is my light, my strength, my song<br />
This Cornerstone, this solid ground<br />
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm<br />
<br />
What heights of love, what depths of peace<br />
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease<br />
My Comforter, my All in All<br />
Here in the love of Christ I stand<br />
<br />
In Christ alone, who took on flesh<br />
Fullness of God in helpless Babe<br />
This gift of love and righteousness<br />
Scorned by the ones He came to save<br />
<br />
Til on that cross as Jesus died<br />
The wrath of God was satisfied<br />
For every sin on Him was laid<br />
Here in the death of Christ I live<br />
<br />
There in the ground His body lay<br />
Light of the world by darkness slain<br />
Then bursting forth in glorious Day<br />
Up from the grave He rose again<br />
<br />
And as He stands in victory<br />
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me<br />
For I am His and He is mine<br />
Bought with the precious blood of Christ<br />
<br />
No guilt in life, no fear in death<br />
This is the power of Christ in me<br />
From life's first cry to final breath<br />
Jesus commands my destiny<br />
<br />
No power of hell, no scheme of man<br />
Can ever pluck me from His hand<br />
Til He returns or calls me home<br />
Here in the power of Christ I stand<br />
<br />
On Christ the solid rock I stand<br />
All other ground is sinking sand<br />
All other ground, all other ground<br />
Is sinking sand<br />
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I hope this ministers to you and it has me.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Be assured then that Jesus is calling out the name </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
of every Lazarus in your life</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
to come forth and live.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwfd_oidYzOU7P7jLQTTOeDf_cQHZzUa_G13zNYrZ_gvuNdlSmFXYXyo7Ix-ACYnRUDE5ojWyUtVdw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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Poems that worked best in this competition, where the poet was keen on using rhyme, was where enjambment reduced the doggerel effect or where the rhymes were ‘looser’ – as in several of the sonnets which I found very effective. <p>A number of themes recurred throughout the entries. Many concerned personal experiences, families, relationships, the pain of love and loss, assumptions, hope and disillusion. Memory was a strong theme, collective memory and connections with the past as well as the individual and present. Many strong poems described landscape and the natural world and there was an emphasis on Earth as unsustainable, under threat. Imagery conveyed strong feelings and profound thought in poems about war, sickness and malignancy. <p>This competition brought me a bagful of poems rich in variety and complexity. Here, after a lot of thought and indecision, is my selection. <p><b>1<sup>st</sup> prize: The Terminology of Bells </b>by<b> Mike Bannister</b> <p>This poem caught my attention from the very first reading. It is a poem about memory and time with the bell terminology skilfully intermingled with descriptions of the setting and matching the mood of each passing moment. I love the sense of place it creates – the names of towns and rivers and the lyrical details of fish and water birds – but I have mainly chosen it as my winner because of the perfect and bell-like musicality of it all. Who could fail to appreciate the poem’s beginning? ‘<i>Sally stroke: </i>early morning, neither a dog bark/nor cuckoo call, only that distant, melancholy peal/a deep-rolling tonnage of bronze’. Or this later stanza? ‘<i>Go:</i> the heart hunting now, <i>headstock </i>and <i>chamber</i>/back behind the tears, for one born by Michaelmas,/who slept in a drawer; was told, and would believe/that the bees sang in the hive at Christmastide.’ <p><b>2<sup>nd</sup> prize: The Catastrophe Tapes </b>by<b> Seán Street</b> <p>An outstanding poem. Comes into my personal category of ‘I wish I’d written it!’ Intriguing and highly original it takes the idea of having a jumble of words and thoughts from a medieval battlefield somehow ‘recorded’ in an ‘old technology’ and left for us to decipher and interpret if we can. The Battle of Towton was one of the most ferocious of the Wars of the Roses, lasting ten hours in a snowstorm so that the white ground afterwards was stained for miles with blood. An idea close to my heart, this connection of the past with the present, the idea of atmosphere and vibrations being forever contained in objects and settings. This poem, however, goes beyond that. To me it reads as all wars, all atrocities. The horrors of Towton are echoed in the trenches, in the rubble of Syria. An incredibly profound poem which leaves us with desperate questions and pleas: ‘surely someone will listen?’, ‘Are you hearing any of this?’, ‘it may matter/ someday, they may need to know it’. <p><b>3<sup>rd</sup> prize: Finger-Wing </b>by<b> Yvonne Reddick</b> <p>Quotation and commentary cannot do justice to this brilliant poem that uses language so skilfully and to the full. The poet, on a chilly day, is looking at clouds, blows on his fists to warm them and feels ‘the scrunched membranes/that mesh my fingers/and remembers how ‘<i>pterodactyl</i>/means <i>finger-wing’. </i>From this imagery of membranes and bones other associations come fast – the poet notices ‘the sludgy hulk of a decomposing pigeon’, remembers how his/her grandmother was ‘bird-bone hollow, all ribstrakes and wing-scaffold ... knuckly birdleg fingers.’ There are further incredible risks with language: the granny’s cremation is described lyrically as ‘plume-cinder ash...The south-easterly hush-hushed it north’, but then we have a line of harsh consonants ‘I interred the pigeon’s slimy reek in a skip’ followed by the quotation ‘<i>le fruit de vos entrailles est béni’ </i>– a direct reference to the Annunciation, a miraculous birth in contrast to this imagery of death and putrefaction. <p><b>Highly Commended: Quince Zone </b>by<b> Dominic James</b> <p>This is another poem that stayed with me from the first reading. Maybe there are underlying themes – identity, awareness, selection, discrimination, even sacrifice – but I chose this poem for its humour, detail and the perfect ‘voice’ of it whereby the ragged quince on a tree in an apple orchard is personified with ‘warty limbs’ and begs the onlooker to pluck it from the tree so that more fruit may grow. The language is conversational and colloquial but with a lyrical Shakesperian touch – ‘a summer comes’ says the quince, ‘oh ,pluck my fruit,/at night the stars smile through me.’ An irresistible poem. <p><b>Highly Commended: We Are All Waters </b>by<b> Shittu Fowora </b> <p>An enigmatic poem which requires many readings to fully appreciate its layers and depths. This suits me perfectly – I enjoy ‘working’ a poem, teasing out associations and subtleties of meaning. Water in a multitude of forms is used here as the central metaphor for the repeated idea ‘There is no ‘you’, or ‘I’, save ‘we’. Identities merge in the universal, waters ‘variously hued’ may be seen in rain, fresh water, dirty water, puddles, in pots for cooking, tears, clouds, droplets, cesspools, icebergs, ponds – and all these aspects collect ‘the geography of the places you’ve been to’, share love, fear, tranquillity, troubles, ‘percolate the crevices between rocks and questions.’ <p><b></b> <p><b>Highly Commended: Chilson Founder’s Day Harvest Festival </b>by <b>Michelle Bonczek Evory</b> <p>The narrator in this poem has been ‘camping/in a strange land’ where, for days, there has been ‘a sopping mess’ of ‘rain and thunder, wind whipping leaves’, where even the chipmunks have been ‘washed out their burrows’. Now the sun is out and an assortment of people gather for the celebration. A delightful poem which I chose for several reasons: its effective use of enjambment, the clear and detailed imagery – I particularly love ‘a silver oven/waiting, for the body of a hog to be spun in its space/like a planet too close to a star’ – but most of all for the small, ordinary, incidental aspects of the day: the names of people and places, phrases of overheard conversation, the baked potato ‘still hot in its aluminium wrapper’, the red-haired brothers licking sour cream ‘from their white plastic forks’. Pleasure on this day may be transient but while it lasts it is real and good. <p><b>Commended: Mobius </b>by <b>Alison J Powell</b> <p>I must confess to a touch of subjectivity here as a poem that ‘plays’ with language and uses techniques of circularity, reversal and repetition will always catch my interest. When it is crafted as beautifully and skilfully as ‘Mobius’ it is guaranteed to find its way on to my winners’ list. Here the poet uses the metaphor of a dance to create the ‘infinite loop’ of a courtship with its spiral of resistance, pursuit, delusion, hopes, tears and dreams culminating in ‘the joining of edges’ as the couple ‘cut loose and flew/Dancing.’ A clever and memorable poem. <p><b>Commended: Liturgies </b>by <b>Anthony Watts</b> <p>I find this sonnet incredibly moving. An adult remembers himself as a child playing at being a priest. Here ‘a patterned hearthrug’ served as a church, the swing of the censer could be mimed, the altar was a shoebox with ‘pencils stuck in cotton-reels for candles.’ This was a vulnerable child searching for something beyond the tangible and inarticulate and this is a vulnerable adult too, still yearning, still on the quest for something more, for an ‘Everywhere’. An incredible poem that suggests so much in a few lines. <p><b>Commended: After </b>by<b> Julian Dobson</b> <p>Many poems describe the horrors of war, the anguish of loss, the aftermath of brutality. This short poem is one of the most effective and poignant I’ve read. With carefully selected details and the technique of understatement the poet takes us into the debris of a market where starving people ‘scour’ for food where ‘lemons/rot in shattered boxes’ and flies ‘signal what might still/be edible.’ So far a fairly typical depiction of devastation. But there are more horrors in this scene, an almost casual mention of ‘legs’ which are ‘not of goats or sheep’ and then these lines which will stay with me for a long time: ‘To eat, you must not search too hard./The stomach will not digest/some discoveries.’ <p><i></i> <p><i><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-ApbrONySyS4/VLg_C6YDnNI/AAAAAAAAA3M/FZBoCQxDv_o/s1600-h/mandy%252520pannett%25255B15%25255D.jpg"><img title="mandy pannett" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="mandy pannett" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-hVl3Xk5EzmA/VLg_Dve-jnI/AAAAAAAAA3U/JlilbT5P-pE/mandy%252520pannett_thumb%25255B13%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="238" height="231"></a></i> <p><i>Mandy Pannett. January 2015</i> <p>All the Invisibles, the powerful poetry collection by Mandy Pannett is available at <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/All-Invisibles-Mandy-Pannett/dp/0956810128/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1421359568&sr=8-4&keywords=mandy+pannett" target="_blank">amazon.co.uk</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/All-Invisibles-Mandy-Pannett/dp/0956810128/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1421359678&sr=8-6&keywords=mandy+pannett" target="_blank">amazon.com</a> </p> <p> <hr> Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition (February 2015) judged by Noel Williams is now accepting entries <p>First Prize: £200</p> <p>Second Prize: £75</p> <p>Third Prize: £50</p> <p>Highly Commended: 3 X £20</p> <p><a href="http://sentinelquarterly.com/competitions/poetry/index.htm" target="_blank">Enter online or by post here</a></p> <hr> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><span style="font-family: "><font size="3" face="Palatino Linotype"><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-CzLUWwIUptw/VGKNRRkImhI/AAAAAAAAA2c/saI-LZLnLOY/s1600-h/bridgewatcher%252520front%252520cove%252520rweb%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img title="bridgewatcher front cove rweb" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="bridgewatcher front cove rweb" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-c4tX16Rg5Sw/VGKNSFdtJDI/AAAAAAAAA2g/kvOKNzjHHFM/bridgewatcher%252520front%252520cove%252520rweb_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="163" height="244"></a></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt"></font></font></span></b></span> </p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">BRIDGEWATCHER</font><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"><font style="font-size: 11pt"> </font></span></font></span></b></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt"> </font></font></span></b></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">Penny Shutt </font></font></span></b></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt"> </font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">I don't ask you to unbutton the sleeves </font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">of your smart work shirt</font><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"></b></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">to show me the cuts</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">because I believe you.</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt"> </font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">You tell me you typed 'suicide'</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><font face="Palatino Linotype"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 11pt">into </font></span></span><font style="font-size: 11pt"><span class="FontStyle13"><span style="font-family: "><em>Google </em></span></span></font><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 11pt">again last night,</font></span></span></font></p> <p class="Style2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">tell me about the website that came up</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">and I nod as though I don't know exactly</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">which one you mean.</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style3" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 12pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="Style3" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">I know it wasn't methods that work </font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style3" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">you sought</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style3" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">but the solace of those voices </font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style3" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">clamouring across the pages </font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style3" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">for help amongst the helpless.</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 12pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="Style2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">On the way into work, my train flies past</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">the bridge I know you go to.</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan" align="justify"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">In the morning glow, a crow perched on the railing,</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">it doesn't hold the same poignant splendour</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">I know it holds for you</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">at four a.m after the wine, the cider, the gin.</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 12pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="Style2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">I know when you're up there</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">there's a certainty to the smooth flat concrete</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">below. That just grasping the cool steel</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">of the railing, toying</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle12"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">with that quivering possibility</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">is all the release that cutting</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">no longer gives.</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 12pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">I'm meant to be the one who manages this risk </font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">but I don't</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">because I know that's not why you go there. </font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">Instead, I up your antidepressants </font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">so it looks like I did something.</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan" align="justify"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 12pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan" align="justify"><span class="FontStyle11"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">As I write the prescription, </font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan" align="justify"><span class="FontStyle11"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">you recall a time when you were little,</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">the judder of the car across the Forth Road Bridge</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">the sparkle of South Queensferry</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">across the still black water</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">and the sudden horror</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">of seeing a man let go and drop</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">into the unglimmering depths,</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">flashing blue lights arriving seconds too late.</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 12pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">'Sometimes people just don't want to live anymore'</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">your dad tried to explain from the front</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">but he was driving, hadn't seen</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">what you had;</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">the sickening courage</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">of that hand</font></font></span></span></p> <p class="Style1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan"><span class="FontStyle11"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font style="font-size: 11pt">letting go of the rail.</font></font></span></span></p> <p>© Penny Shutt</p> <p>Where to buy Bridgewatcher & Other Poems</p> <p><a href="http://www.sentinelpoetry.org.uk/publications/bridgewatcher/index.html" target="_blank">SPM Publications</a></p> <p>Also available at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and all other amazon channels.</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div>The Blogmasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010095525252838309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427936.post-58785250704169286582014-10-15T00:00:00.001+00:002014-10-15T00:00:53.382+00:00SENTINEL LITERARY QUARTERLY SHORT STORY COMPETITION (AUGUST 2014)–ADJUDICATION REPORT<h1 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><b><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">Administrator’s Note</font></font></span></b></h1> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">Please note that this competition was judged blind and the adjudication report was sent in by the Judge with only the titles of the winning and commended poems. I have matched the winners and their poems to make for easier reading.</font></font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt; text-indent: -18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style""><span style="mso-list: ignore"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">-</font></font><span style="font-family: ; line-height: normal"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 7pt"> </font></font></span></span></span><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">Nnorom Azuonye (14/10/2014)</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><span style="font-family: ; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin"><font style="font-size: 12pt"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">An adjudication report by Brindley Hallam Dennis</font></font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">There were 73 entries, and I knew I was in trouble when my shortlist reached twenty.</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></span><font style="font-size: 14pt">Adding one more to the list would have brought another nineteen in with it, and that didn't help either. What I'm saying is that I enjoyed an awful lot of these stories. In fact, there were only a few – two or three – that I didn't think had something good going for them; and two of those read like well-written articles, but they weren't really short stories. For all you glass half full types out there, you could say, I found a lot of the stories to be lacking that little something that would make them winners!</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></span><font style="font-size: 14pt">It's only in competitions that you have to make these sort of judgements. Otherwise you take your shorts like an espresso, and enjoy them for what they are, in the moment, for you, as you are, at that moment. What's it about? Do you care? How's it written? Does the voice beguile you?</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></span><font style="font-size: 14pt">As I sifted through I began to realise that the stories I wanted to celebrate most were somewhat oblique in form or content; forceful in their tellings, with voices that made me stop and listen; with subjects that caught my interest. The whole range was there: life death; love; comic; tragic; absurd; serious, and the rest. A few took what are becoming contemporary standards, and anything that everyone is talking about is hard to write about without becoming part of the undistinguishable murmur, or cacophony. Two, in my 'Commended' list were, I guessed, by the same author, having the same characters. I'd like to see those as part of a longer fiction – a novel perhaps?</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">Here's my list, in traditionally reversed order:</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><b><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">Commended (in no particular order):</font></font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font style="font-size: 14pt">Till Death Us Do Part</font></span></b><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> by Gareth Shore (Sale)</font></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font style="font-size: 14pt">Fifty-Second Birthday in Bed by Christie Cluett</font></span></b><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> (Bristol)</font></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font style="font-size: 14pt">Odd Boy by Sharon Boyle</font></span></b><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> (East Linton)</font></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font style="font-size: 14pt">It's Seven Letters You Need by Maxine Backus</font></span></b><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> (</font><span style="background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-position: 0% 0%; color: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">Grueningen, Switzerland.)</font></span></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font style="font-size: 14pt">Abide With Me by Maxine Backus</font></span></b><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> (</font><span style="background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-position: 0% 0%; color: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">Grueningen, Switzerland.)</font></span></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><b><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">Highly Commended (in no particular order):</font></font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font style="font-size: 14pt">For Mike by </font></span></b><font style="font-size: 14pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: ; color: ; line-height: 21pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"">Geoff Aird</span></b></font><span style="font-family: ; color: ; line-height: 21pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS""><font style="font-size: 14pt"> (Edinburgh)</font></span></font><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">Swan Sculpting in Leighton Buzzard by Katie Martin (Cambridge)</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">Oh How We Danced by Tony Crafter (Knockholt)</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><b><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">3<sup>rd</sup> Prize</font></font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font style="font-size: 14pt">The Eternal Knot by John Robinson</font></span></b><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> (Newbury) - Complex, convoluted, philosophical. A conversation between an Old Man and a snake, on the huge subject of sentience – of being alive and knowing it; of being mortal, and knowing that too.</font></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><b><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">2<sup>nd</sup> Prize</font></font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font style="font-size: 14pt">Coffee-Coloured Eyes by Olga Vakruchev</font></span></b><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> (Toronto, Canada) -Slipping into the surreal, but I never doubted this woman's voice, nor her belief in her own story.</font></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><b><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">1<sup>st</sup> Prize </font></font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font style="font-size: 14pt">Killers at Fat Joe's by </font></span></b><font style="font-size: 14pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt; mso-ansi-language: en-us">Tom Serengeti</span></b><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"> (</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt; mso-ansi-language: en-us">BERTSHAM</span></font><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> , South Africa) – I think I liked the ambition of this most of all: daring to echo Hemingway's title, and story, and do a riff on it. But I liked the spare descriptions and the dialogue too, and the unfolding events, and the characters, and their names, and the ending. I guess I would have liked the pizza too!<b> </b></font><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></span></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"></span></span></font> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><font size="4" face="Bookman Old Style"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1">BRINDLEY HALLAM DENNIS</span></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><font size="4" face="Bookman Old Style"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"></span></span></font> </p> <hr> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"></span></span></font></p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div>The Blogmasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09010095525252838309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427936.post-36810029387219116332014-10-14T23:43:00.001+00:002014-10-14T23:43:22.775+00:00SENTINEL LITERARY QUARTERLY POETRY COMPETITION (AUGUST 2014) – ADJUDICATION REPORT<h1 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><b><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">Administrator’s Note</font></font></span></b></h1> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">Please note that this competition was judged blind and the adjudication report was sent in by the Judge with only the titles of the winning and commended poems. I have matched the winners and their poems to make for easier reading.</font></font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; line-height: 18pt; text-indent: -18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Bookman Old Style""><span style="mso-list: ignore"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">-</font></font><span style="font-family: ; line-height: normal"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 7pt"> </font></font></span></span></span><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">Nnorom Azuonye (14/10/2014)</font></font></span></p> <h1 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><b><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></font></span></b></h1> <h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman""><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"><font style="font-weight: bold"><em>An adjudication report by WILL DAUNT</em></font></font></font></span></h2> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">Adjudicating reminds me of how it feels to go through your wardrobe, looking for good companions to donate to the latest charity collection: you don’t want to say goodbye to any particular item, but as you do, the qualities of each garment/ poem stir a mixture of affection and regret. And you hope that your farewell will not be a final airing.</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">The great thing about adjudicating for Sentinel is that you can – as it were - leave so much good material in the wardrobe, convinced that, when it sees the light of day again, it will be genuinely worthy of public view. </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">Thanks to all those writers who contributed to a large number of entries, many of which made the long list. Of these, ‘The Sapphire’ by Dominic James and ‘Sibling Rivalries’ by Andy Hickmott came closest to inclusion, in the final analysis.</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">COMMENDED</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"></font></span> </p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">‘Adlestrop Unwound’ by John Whitworth </font></span></b><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">(Canterbury)</font></span></font></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">The irreverent humour of this exploration of (mainly) English place names begins with one of the most famous – poetically - happily mutating into a more surreal journey through unlikely locations: ‘Upper Slaughter, Lower Slaughter,/ Foggy Bottom, Devil’s Drop’,/ ‘Faintley-Furtive-in-the-Water’. The diction is as sharp and sure as the wordplay, the momentum well judged.</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">‘East’ by Terence Jones</font></span></b><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt"> (New Barnet)</font></span></font></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">This evocative picture of a few hours spent at the eastern edge of England leads the narrator to a point of distilled isolation, which, while full of chilling imagery, condenses a compelling creative energy: ‘…It suits me now/ to look away from all my beautiful/ sunsets, and toward the dark quarter’.</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">‘Edwin’s Candle’ by Terence Brick</font></span></b><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt"> (Newbury)</font></span></font></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">Referring to Bede’s History of the English people, this poem vividly reawakens the ways of life of the time. The imagery stirs the senses, while the language sings: ‘But that day the raven </font></font></span><font style="font-size: 14pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman""><font face="Times New Roman">ǀ</font></span><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"> harkened to the dove./ And such was the debate </font></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman""><font face="Times New Roman">ǀ</font></span><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"> swift as the sparrow,/ in at the window </font></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman""><font face="Times New Roman">ǀ</font></span></font><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> to the hourly chatter.’</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><u><span style="font-family: "><span style="text-decoration: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"></font></font></span></span></u> </p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">‘<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Gravity’ by Oz Hardwick </b>(York)</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">Here’s an example of a sonnet which easily could have been overlooked. There is great skill in the understated precision with which a budget airline flight is recreated. Subtly controlled (like the use of rhyme), a sense of longing emerges from the ordinariness: ‘But through the misting window I see nowhere,/ nothing: just turbulence, close as recycled air’. </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"></font></span> </p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">‘Homecoming’ by Oz Hardwick </font></span></b><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">(York)</font></span></font></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">The beauty of this piece lies simply in the degree to which the narrator recreates what was seen, heard and felt from within a home-bound car. No word has been lost, or misplaced: ‘Chains tick, wheels whisper,/ a smooth descent between trees/ whose fingers click to the rhythm of breathing’. </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><u><span style="font-family: "><span style="text-decoration: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"></font></font></span></span></u> </p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">‘Ice Fisher’ by Jude Neale </font></span></b><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">(Bowen Island, Canada)</font></span></font></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">‘I miss/ your clutch of amazement/ that untethered me here//to become a finger point/ a sky full of oranges’. From the poem’s conclusion, these lines capture its insistent yet restrained progression through stages of loss. The hints of the underlying tale are deftly spread throughout the piece.</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><u><span style="font-family: "><span style="text-decoration: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"></font></font></span></span></u> </p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">‘Judging a Gap’ by Kieron Tufft </font></span></b><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">(Ripon)</font><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"></b></span></font></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">There’s a compelling originality about this piece: its form and its purpose tantalise and entice equally, with the ‘gap’ of the title implied through a succession of ambiguous but engaging images, such as: ‘…And we ponder what anything/ is worth these days// if pale, freckled faces still hold sway’.</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><u><span style="font-family: "><span style="text-decoration: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"></font></font></span></span></u> </p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">‘The shipwrecked naturalist’ by Robert Archer </font></span></b><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">(Valencia, Spain)</font><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"></b></span></font></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">The love behind this sonnet is a scientist’s loss of a life’s work in a shipwreck. More telling, his possessions will survive him as he drifts into the open ocean: ‘ …his own crates,/ sealed and tarred, packed tight with journals, gorgeous moths,/ strange reptiles, seeds and bulbs for English soil..?’ The futile ironies of mortality are portrayed with a lucid assurance in these accomplished, imaginary snapshots of a death.</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><u><span style="font-family: "><span style="text-decoration: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"></font></font></span></span></u> </p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">We’re all in the Book by Tessa Foley </font></span></b><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">(Southsea)</font></span></font></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">The intrigues within this poem draw you in, repeatedly. Who is ‘My baby’? Why did she leave ‘shortly’ to ‘begin a new life’ and why could she ‘not take pills/ her throat was too narrow’?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>How do the numbers spread through the poem, thread together? It’s a powerful invitation to explore familial fragmentation.</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">HIGHLY COMMENDED</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><u><span style="font-family: "><span style="text-decoration: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"></font></font></span></span></u> </p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">‘Juggling’ by Angela Arnold </font></span></b><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">(Oswestry)</font></span></font></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">This poem is rich in irony, beginning with a call to ‘turn down’ a media report on unemployment. Instead, the narrator’s focus shifts to the equally unfamiliar activity of distant ‘labouring manikins’ who ‘secure the land’ as they bring in the harvest. Seen, but not heard ‘from beyond double-glaze’, the workers are depicted adeptly. They fascinate as much as they alienate the writer, turning them back to the frustrations of their own, very different graft.</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><u><span style="font-family: "><span style="text-decoration: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"></font></font></span></span></u> </p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">#OCCUPYNIGERIA by Aminu Abdullahi </font></span></b><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">(Kano, Nigeria)</font></span></font></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">The wide-ranging collage of imagery in this striking piece draws the reader compellingly to a moment in time: the Occupy Nigeria protests. Its impact is built around the well-judged balancing of a strong evocation of place, against only a suggestion of partisanship: ‘as the lavender lies burning/ the smell is no estacode’. Change stands within ‘…liberty’s promised light// Gay until the colours/ Washed the labyrinth’.</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><u><span style="font-family: "><span style="text-decoration: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"></font></font></span></span></u> </p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">‘Viewpoint’ by Mark Totterdell </font></span></b><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">(Exeter)</font></span></font></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">The evocation of place is so often done well, so rarely done remarkably. Here, the combined panoramas of landscape and memory envelope the reader: ‘it’s like being given a decade of eyesight back’. No one and nowhere is named, and rightly so. Like a painter, the writer communicates through skill alone; no pretension or polemic: ‘warped squares of agriculture, fuzzy/ February-coloured woods, even the airport/ undeniably, all topped by a cut of sea.’</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></font></span></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">THIRD PRIZE:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font><span style="mso-tab-count: 2"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></span></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">‘The Thimble’ by Daniel Davies</font></span></b><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt"> (London)</font></span></font></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">Here’s a poet who can construct a narrative. The implied horror of a rail suicide is set behind a failed attempt to make a day out memorable. There’s a carefully veiled sense of disappointment and ennui: ‘Snow on Good Friday’ when the ‘ridged earth looked white up ahead, black from behind,/two-toned by the angled blast’. </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">As the day fades during a forgettable return journey, the fatal collision happens without, at first, being understood. You can believe the scene, in the marooned train: ‘<i>Those were bones we heard</i>, you said. <i>Not rocks’</i>. The numbness of the travellers’ sensibilities is captured finally with the trivially tactile, as the narrator fiddles with a thimble ‘plucked from the One Pound Bucket’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As if nothing had happened.</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><u><span style="font-family: "><span style="text-decoration: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"></font></font></span></span></u> </p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">SECOND PRIZE: </font><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></span></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">orange brain. flowered brain by Jen Campbell </font></span></b><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">(London)</font></span></font></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">This poem innovates in form, thematic progression and in its accomplished use of dialect. ‘Abigail’s mind is aal ablaze’ from the outset, and the kaleidoscope of images which develops this theme leaves the reader able to imagine a number of traumas that might explain why ‘Abigail cups her brain like soft-shell crab’, or why the poem’s mood darkens: ‘In toon them talk of banishment. Ain’t much time for them what split themselves’.</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">At each stage of its development, this effervescent piece grabs the ear and shakes the imagination; not a comfortable read, but one that roots deeply in the consciousness.</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><u><span style="font-family: "><span style="text-decoration: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></font></span></span></u></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">FIRST PRIZE:</font><span style="mso-tab-count: 2"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></span></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt">‘Flood’ by Philip Burton</font></span></b><span style="font-family: "><font style="font-size: 14pt"> (Bacup)</font></span></font></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">This is a poem which coolly brings this year’s British floods swelling back into the mind’s eye. Like a calm but irrepressible tide, the depiction of that saturation point seeps down the page; that force which ‘came as a dead thing’, that leveller which delivered a ‘super-cooled molten-mirror’. </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">Mankind’s tenuous tenure of the earth is everywhere: ‘the rustic oak sideboard which made you/ proud, grounded and secure, can’t navigate/ the narrow stairs’.</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 21pt"><span style="font-family: "><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">What makes the impact of ‘Flood’ particularly telling is the absence of any first person or self-pity. The tone is slightly detached, almost factual, with the use of the second person underlining powers which, while being beyond our control, are perhaps of our making</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoList" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt; text-indent: 0cm"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoList" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt; text-indent: 0cm"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"><font style="font-size: 14pt">WILL DAUNT, 11 OCTOBER 2014</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoList" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 18pt; text-indent: 0cm"><span style="font-family: ; line-height: 21pt"><font face="Bookman Old Style"></font></span></p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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ENTER NOW.<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span><font face="Calibri"><font style="font-size: 12pt"><img style="float: left; display: inline" src="http://www.sentinelquarterly.com/competitions/poetry/DOMINIC%20JAMES.jpg" align="left">SENTINEL LITERARY QUARTERLY POETRY COMPETITION</font></font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span><font face="Calibri"><font style="font-size: 12pt">Closing Date: 31-May-2014</font></font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal"><span><font face="Calibri"><font style="font-size: 12pt">For original, previously unpublished poems in English Language, on any subject, in any style up to 50 lines long. This competition is open to all poets regardless of nationality, living anywhere in the world. Judge: Dominic James.</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal"><font face="Calibri"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span><font style="font-size: 12pt">Prizes</font></span></b><span><font style="font-size: 12pt">: £200 (First), £75 (Second), £50 (Third), £20 x 3 (High Commendation).</font></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal"><span><font face="Calibri"><font style="font-size: 12pt">The winners and commended poems will receive first publication in Sentinel Literary Quarterly magazine.</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal"><font face="Calibri"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span><font style="font-size: 12pt">Fees:</font></span></b><span><font style="font-size: 12pt"> £4/1, £7/2, £9/3, £11/ 4, £12/5, £16/7, and £22 for 10 poems.</font></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal"><span><font face="Calibri"><font style="font-size: 12pt">Enter online and pay securely by PayPal or print out an Entry Form for postal entries at:</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal"><span><font color="#0000ff" face="Calibri"><u><font style="font-size: 12pt"><a href="http://www.sentinelquarterly.com/competitions/poetry">www.sentinelquarterly.com/competitions/poetry</a></font></u></font></span><span><font face="Calibri"><font style="font-size: 12pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal"><span><font face="Calibri"><font style="font-size: 12pt">Or send your poems with a cover note titled ‘Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition May 2014’, together with a cheque/postal order for the applicable payment in favour of SENTINEL POETRY MOVEMENT to: Sentinel Poetry Movement, Unit 136, 113-115 George Lane, South Woodford, London E18 1AB, United Kingdom</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal"><span><font face="Calibri"><font style="font-size: 12pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal"><span><font face="Calibri"><font style="font-size: 12pt"> </font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span><font face="Calibri"><font style="font-size: 12pt"><img style="float: left; display: inline" src="http://www.sentinelquarterly.com/competitions/short-stories/Catherine%20Edmunds.jpg" align="left">SENTINEL LITERARY QUARTERLY SHORT STORY COMPETITION</font></font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span><font face="Calibri"><font style="font-size: 12pt">Closing Date: 31-May-2014</font></font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal"><span><font face="Calibri"><font style="font-size: 12pt">For original, previously unpublished short stories in English Language, on any subject, in any style up to 1500 words long. This competition is open to all writers regardless of nationality, living anywhere in the world. Judge: Catherine Edmunds</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal"><font face="Calibri"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span><font style="font-size: 12pt">Prizes</font></span></b><span><font style="font-size: 12pt">: £200 (First), £75 (Second), £50 (Third), £20 x 3 (High Commendation).</font></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal"><span><font face="Calibri"><font style="font-size: 12pt">The winners and commended stories will receive first publication in Sentinel Literary Quarterly magazine.</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal"><font face="Calibri"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span><font style="font-size: 12pt">Fees:</font></span></b><span><font style="font-size: 12pt"> £5 per story, £8 for 2, £10 for 3, £12 for 4.</font></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal"><span><font face="Calibri"><font style="font-size: 12pt">Enter online and pay securely by PayPal or print out an Entry Form for postal entries at:</font></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal"><span><font color="#0000ff" face="Calibri"><u><font style="font-size: 12pt"><a href="http://www.sentinelquarterly.com/competitions/short-stories">www.sentinelquarterly.com/competitions/short-stories</a></font></u></font></span><span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><font face="Calibri"><font style="font-size: 12pt"> </font></font></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: normal"><span><font face="Calibri"><font style="font-size: 12pt">Or send your stories with a cover note titled ‘Sentinel Literary Quarterly Short Story Competition May 2014’, together with a cheque/postal order for the applicable payment in favour of SENTINEL POETRY MOVEMENT to: Sentinel Poetry Movement, Unit 136, 113-115 George Lane, South Woodford, London E18 1AB, United Kingdom</font></font></span></p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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