Belle Vue Arts Festival
Poetry Writing Competition 2022
Pick up that pen and go on your JOURNEY!
Email us your poetry and we will post to the website for everyone to enjoy
Send to us at: bellevueartsfestival@gmail.com
Just sit down and write!
How to join in
Our theme this year is JOURNEYS, however we welcome all entries!
No word limit
We will accept poems and short stories
Please include:
Title of your entry (optional)
Full name of author
Email address
If you need inspiration, try these tips from poet and visual artist Helen Ivory
Be as literal or as imaginative as you want to be
Set a timer and write for ten minutes. Try not to overthink what you are writing
Try making short sentences or lists of words, not worrying how they connect
Now read back. Are there any word combinations that you can develop?
Quest
by Bill West
Safe at my computer screen I journeyed to that long deserted Hebridean island.
From a windswept jetty I wandered along tumbled tracks strewn with sea wrack, buffeted by winds.
Sometimes I slipped and fell from craggy cliffs only to be reborn so that I could continue my quest.
Amongst rocky knolls of gneiss I scrambled this way and that up vertiginous heights or down sea scoured caves.
My path often led me deep underground, places with stalactites, phosphorescent fungi, rushing streams and the constant sound of falling water.
Only through the baptism of deep pools or by leaping into a sinkhole did I finally find a path to ascend.
Beneath a full moon I toiled ever upwards against gusting winds and it was only at that lofty summit that the secret of my quest was finally revealed.
Bernal’s Picasso
by Bill West
Bronze Liver Birds overlook
summer dockside crowds
that slip between the pink
pillared portico of the Tate.
We join children
noisily queuing
then give them the slip
following our own way
about.
But in the gallery
they catch us.
Bernal’s Picasso
expectant
wreathed faces
witness the throng.
Outside we peer over
the sea gate.
Wind and waves have
herded jellyfish;
lilac-fringed doilies that
pulse in the sun.
IN MY FIELD
Judy Arliss for the Belle Vue Festival
It is not mine.
This countryside.
It is not ours.
We are just the shallow footprints in a hollowland.
priviledged...by dint of hard work from generations of ancestors.
When i pick out clay pipes, under my spuds..I thank my loved ones and loathed ones..for lessons.
For mother Earth..father sun and children rain.
Gaia.
I Don’t Know You
Paloma Evers
You pass by with your dog,
Approximately 9pm every evening,
What is your story I ask myself,
What did you do before you left your house?
If I were to ask, what is your purpose?
What would you say?
A mystery man in a mystery land,
He stands still and silent,
Like an apple falling from a tree,
Something only to be heard in presence,
You do not exist to me.
Driving to Nowhere
Paloma Evers
Driving to nowhere,
With the illusion that a different generation,
Has any more purpose than we do,
We drive, and drive,
Driving to nowhere,
With the hope that a crunch will eradicate your despair,
You drive, and drive,
You crunch, and crunch,
Leaving silver wrappers as a trail behind you,
Look at me, look at me,
I’m driving to nowhere,
Chasing chaos as if it’s my companion.
VICTORIA COACH STATION
Patricia Green
It runs like clockwork now, with destinations on computer screens,
Plus information staff to help the most confused of customers.
Between the neat ordered lines, I look for my teenage self,
Scurrying like a rabbit, set adrift in the big city
Before our nanny state had got the job.
My townie friends teased the little country cousin
Who found train and tube an ordeal, didn’t know
Who or how to ask the way, walked into gaffes
Daily awaiting the foolish. Yet, nose-twitchingly wary
I found my timid tracks through London’s lanes.
The big city still tempts to the flame, still lures me
In hope of bright-light glamour, rare outings
Even in today’s well-charted territory, I fear to lose
My trembling timorous self between the cracks.
My Recipe
Gabriella Mountain (9)
Mereside CE Primary Academy, Shrewsbury
Ingredients:
A pinch of mischief
A spoonful of fun
A sprinkle of joy
30g of love
A splash of beauty
A dash of books
And a drop of kindness
Now you will need to:
First add the dash of books
Mix in a sprinkle of joy
Next, crush the mischief until it is soft
Then add the spoonful of fun to the mischief
Now stir in a splash of beauty
After that, coat in kindness
And add 30g of love
Finally, cook in an oven for 30 minutes
And this is me!