Today on My Poetic Side, we look at “Science Around Us”, Nick Caves’ response to a fan who likened his work to Charles Bukowski and a “Host of Golden Daffodils”.
“Science Around Us” Competition to be Judged by Lemn Sissay
A poetry competition for budding writers will challenge them to create a Twitter-style micropoem on the theme “Science Around Us”. The competition, which is being run by Creative Manchester, is an annual Micropoetry competition, and it was launched last week to coincide with World Poetry Day.
Lemn Sissay, the BAFTA-nominated writer and poet, who is also an honorary chair for creative writing at The University of Manchester, will be one of the three judges who will be looking at the entries. With a Twitter character limit of 280 characters, the entrants must pack a lot into a very short number of words.
The Micropoetry competition has been run by the University’s Centre for New Writing and Creative Manchester for the last 10 years. It is open to everyone, and entrants need to submit entries via Twitter using #micropoem23 or by email with the hashtag included.
The competition will run until 21st June. The other judges are John McAuliffe, who is a Professor of Poetry at The University of Manchester and Maryam Hessavi, who is a critic and poet based in Manchester.
The judges’ favourite poem will be awarded a £500 prize, and there will be £250 each for two runners-up. There will also be a first prize of £25 for a poem in the under-18 category.
The challenge of writing very little within just one tweet has produced some incredible entries over the years, and the judges are once again looking forward to seeing just how inventive people can be.
Musician Voices Opinion on Late Poet
In a recent interview, the musician Nick Cave said that the late novelist and poet Charles Bukowski was a poet who he didn’t like in any way. He was responding to comments made by a fan who likened his work to that of the poet but with a guitar.
He said that he understood what the fan was trying to say but didn’t like the comparison. He went on to say that had they compared him to Philip Larkin or Langston Hughes, it would have been a comparison he would have been happy with.
So much is his dislike for Bukowski that his song “We Call Upon The Author” contains the line “Bukowski was a Jerk!.”
Daft About Daffodils
The Rotary Club in Cockermouth have been running a “Host of Golden Daffodils” event to help commemorate the work of the poet William Wordsworth who was born there in 1770.
The idea behind the event is that people from the town and Rotary Club members will get out and about in the town and daffodils made from a range of different materials and in all shapes and sizes to help with the celebrations.
Their first Daffodil Day was held in 2016 alongside a number of events to commemorate Wordsworth. There was no event in 2020 due to the pandemic, and a decision was made to scale the event down, which is when “Host of Golden Daffodils” was born. It is hoped this will now be an annual event coinciding with Easter and the poet’s birthday.
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