Today on My Poetic Side bring you the news that Dareen Tatour has finally been sentenced, we look at this years Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards and last but not least the clown who has become a “poet laureate”.

Dareen Tatour Sentenced

A sentence has now been passed in the case of Dareen Tatour, the poet who was arrested in 2015, following several posts she made on social media.

Yesterday the poet was jailed on charges of inciting people to be violent and also of offering support to a group who have been subject to a ban, as they are seen as being a terrorist-based organisation. This is based on posts Tatour made online which included footage of the poet reading out one of her own poems as well as videos of Palestinian protesters throwing stones. The poet has always claimed that her poem has been mistranslated and that she was never calling for violence to be carried out. Israel has thrown blame at this post, and others like it on social media for a wave of violence, which has been responsible for the deaths of 55 Israeli citizens from October 2015 up to now.

Tatour was sentenced in May but has been awaiting sentencing, she has been jailed for five months.

Speaking after her sentence had been passed Tatour said

From her arrest in October 2015 to January 2016 Tatour has spent months in a prison before she was put on house arrest, where she had been until recently.

Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards

It is nearly time for the annual Dorothea Mackellar Poetry awards. This year the Dorothea Mackellar Memorial Society who oversee the awards have received in the region of 9000 entries.

The theme this year was “I have promises to keep” and the judges have seen a very large number of high-quality poems amongst the entries. The judges, who are chosen on an annual basis this year include several youth authors and a publisher.

The winners of the competition will be announced at the annual awards which will take place at the civic centre on 31^stAugust.

The Poet Laureate of The New York Times is a Clown

Tim Torkildson from Utah who is a retired clown has become something of a celebrity in the offices of The New York Times – he has been sending copies of his own original poems to the journalists there for quite a while now.

Over the course of the last four-years Torkildson has sent over 1000 limericks, which he refers to as Timericks, to a total of 22 journalists, 8 of them working for The New York Times. They range in subject matter; some focus on national news whilst others have been about the press themselves. So much so that he has earned himself the unofficial title of Poet laureate of The New York Times.