The Great Race

There are many races in life. From the magic race of sperm to be the first to get to the egg, to the grinding rat race we struggle through on a daily basis. Then there are the exciting races, horses, greyhounds, athletes running, motor sport - there are winners and losers, and many great stories to be told of the great races.

The Adelaide Plains Poets Inc have another great poetry competition for 2010/2011 lining up on the starting grid with the exciting theme of 'THE GREAT RACE'. Entries are open now, closing on 7 January 2011, and the entry form and guidelines are on this page, so scroll down, cut and paste the necessary parts and get thinking about which of life's Great Races you wish to write your poem about.

As the competition secretary, I am excited about what exciting stories in poetic form people will write and send to me to be involved in APPI's sixth annual poetry competition.

read all about it below:-


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ADELAIDE PLAINS POETS Inc
ADELAIDE PLAINS CUP FESTIVAL
POETRY COMPETITION 2011

‘The Great Race’

1st, 2nd & 3rd cash prizes, plus Highly Commended & Commended certificates as appropriate. Total prize pool over $500

ENTRY GUIDELINES

· Work entered in this competition must be original, in English, unpublished and not have won a prize in any other competition. Authors retain copyright, but the organisers reserve the right to arrange for possible reading of Prize winners’ work during the Adelaide Plains Cup Festival 2011, and selected entries may be published in an anthology
· Theme ‘The Great Race’
· Poems entered must in some way refer to the theme,
· Open Class - poets 18 years & older
· Junior classes –
o Primary School student
o Secondary School student
· To maintain anonymity, entrant’s name should appear on entry form only, not on poems. Entry forms are to include entrant’s name, address, phone number, titles of poems submitted.
· Entries should be typed, on one side of paper only, one poem to a page
· Poems to be no longer than 60 lines
· Entry fees: Open class $5.00 per poem entered
Junior classes - no entry fee
· Cheques to be made payable to Adelaide Plains Poets Inc
· Entries to: Competition Secretary, 30 Germantown Rd REDBANKS SA 5502
· Entries to be received by close of business 7 January 2011 – entries received after this date may not be considered for the competition.
· Authors should retain a copy of their work, entries will not be returned without provision of a SSAE
· Selected entries may be published in an anthology

For further details contact:
Ms C Cordon (08) 85272412; 0418 806 490; jeebers@bigpond.com



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ADELAIDE PLAINS POETS INC
ADELAIDE PLAINS CUP FESTIVAL
POETRY COMPETITION 2011

‘The Great Race’
ENTRY FORM

Name…………………..……………………Phone…………………

Address……………………………………………..…………………

.…………………………………………………………………………
Email………………………………..

Title of poem/s - ……………………………………………………..

……………………………………………………..

……………………………………………………..
(use back of page for additional entries)

Entrants’ names or other details must not appear on poems

Declaration by author: I agree to comply with the Entry Guidelines and declare that the written work submitted in my name is my own original work and has not been copied in part, or in full, from any other source.

Author’s signature…………………………………..date…………………...
Date of birth (if entering junior section) ………………………….……….…..
Name of school (if entering junior section) …………………………………….

$5.00 per poem (OPEN CLASS ONLY – NO FEE FOR JUNIOR ENTRIES)

CLOSING DATE FOR ENTRIES 7 January 2011

Cheques/money orders to be made payable to Adelaide Plains Poets Inc, and sent with entries to Competition Secretary, 30 Germantown Rd REDBANKS SA 5502

Authors should retain a copy of their work, entries will not be returned without provision of a stamped self-addressed envelope, and a written request.

If you wish, you can pay online using the method below:-
Cost for Paypal entries is $5.00 plus an extra 50 cents for each poem entered (for Paypal payments only).

50 cents added to cover fee

Villanelle - How to Write One

I can't say I'm an expert on this one, but I have written one which I think was well done. I've searched the internet and found a site that shows and explains how to manage this frustrating poetic form.

This site gives a studied look at one villanelle poem - read it and you will understand the form. I recommend having a rhyming dictionary close at hand if you want to give the villanelle a try.

Frustrating yes, but when you get it right, you can be justly proud of yourself. It isn't easy to get the right lines to use in this form. A villanelle repeats two lines at regular intervals, and if you get it wrong it can end up lame, or stupid.

If you have been writing free verse poetry and want to try something more structured, why not give the villanelle a try? The form has been around for over three hundred years, and has been successfully written by famous poets - Dylan Thomas has one that almost everyone would have heard of 'Do not go gentle into that good night/Rage, rage against the dying of the light' . If you've never heard of it, well, do yourself a favour and read it. It does the job so well, so deeply and it has been moving people for over seventy years.

My best villanelle so far isn't so famous, but it has received favorable comment from poets wiser than me. Here it is if you're interested (careful, adult theme):-

Repressed memory syndrome

She didn't know what she would find,
she hoped an inner peace may rise
as she searched back to her child-mind.

Not innocent, she wasn't blind
as she looked deep with knowing eyes.
She didn't know what she would find,

reluctance should have been a sign
of what she hadn't realised -
the secrets locked in her child-mind.

Hoping for something soft and kind,
recalling only pain and lies.
She didn't know that she would find

an image of a harsh face, lined,
hard callused hands and frightening sighs
bewildering to her child-mind.

Her mother had ignored her cries,
the bruises on her skinny thighs.
She didn't know what she would find,
she'll bury again her child-mind.