We begin our week here at My Poetic Side with articles about the launch of a poetry competition to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI, the state burial of the IsraeLi Poet laureate Haim Gouri, and the Annual Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award.
Prince William Launches Poetry Competition
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, and on Friday the Duke of Cambridge launched a national poetry competition that will be just one of the many ways in which the servicemen and women will be remembered.
The competition which is called “A Poem to Remember” is inspired by the likes of Wilfred Owen and the many First World War poets whose words still make us think today. The competition which is free to enter is open to anyone over the age of 17, however, only poems that have previously not been published can be submitted. All entries must be no longer than 25 lines in length.
The deadline for entries is 9th April, a long list of 25 entries will be chosen and then reduced down to just 5 by the panel of judges. The final decision will be made by the public who will vote for their favourite. The winning poem will be read out by the Duke of Cambridge, who is a patron of the campaign, in the summer.
The competition is being run by a number of different groups including the Defence National Rehabilitation Centre, of whom the Duke is a patron. The winning poem will be mounted at the DNRC, in their new facility for clinical rehabilitation of members of the Armed Forces who are sick and injured, which is due to be opened later this year.
Israel Prize Laureate Laid to Rest
The poet Haim Gouri, who passed away on Wednesday at the age of 94 was laid to rest in Jerusalem on Thursday in accordance with the Jewish tradition.
Referred to as the “Nation’s contemporary poet” Gouri’s poetry was a real reflection of the early national ethos of Israel, in fact some of his songs became important parts of Israeli culture.
The poet”s body was laid to rest in the Har Hamenuhot cemetery in Jerusalem, in the area where plots are kept only for the most honoured citizens of the city. His body, which lay in state at the Jerusalem theatre, as visited earlier in the day by hundreds of people who wanted to pay their respects to the poet.
Annual Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards
Around 75 poets congregated at the Stately Hamilton Club in Paterson for the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards; an annual competition that is sponsored by the Paterson poetry centre.
The winning poems are chosen by a panel of judges who are unaware of the identity of the poets; the chosen poems are then read out during the award ceremony by their authors. The majority of entrants to the competition are local people for the Paterson area.
This year 24 poems out of a total of 2000 entries were recognised by the judges, these poems will appear in the Paterson Literary Review.
Paterson has a rich heritage of poetry, not only was it home to Allen Ginsberg but the poet William Carlos Williams also had huge links to the area.
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