 | The new issue of FourXFour Poetry Journal will be out on Thursday 21st March, for World Poetry Day. This will be the first of our new expanded editions: as well as featured the regular four featured poets per issue, we will also be including a general selection of poetry. Issue 28 will carry 24 extra poems from 21 poets. Our featured poets from Issue 28 will be: Billy Mills Anne Casey Ian Heffernan Azeem Lateef We are also nominating two poems from the issue for The Forward Prize for Best Single Poem: Ian Heffernan - Geriatric Ablaze Betty Baxter - Doing the Rounds Joining these nominations will be Claire McCotter's Triptych from Issue 26. A prize of £1,000 will be given to the author of the best single poem that has been published in a newspaper, periodical, magazine, e-zine or online journal in the UK or Republic of Ireland between 24 March 2018 and 23 March 2019. We wish our nominated poets all the best for the prize! |
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Co-host Geraldine O'Kane shares their thoughts on March's Purely Poetry Open Mic night:
Purely Poetry peeps, as the song said 'and as I recall it ended much too soon ... Oh what a night'... You packed to the rafters, thankfully you were all good, no swinging shenanigans ensued! Our host with the most poems in the world treated us to a brand spanking new one, hot of yesterday afternoons press! We had eight magnificent first timers and three of them were Brian's, we always knew they would take over the creativity world! Our fourth Brian was very brave to declare he hates poetry (he did make it out alive)! We had a few overarching themes running through the night love of the sea, sexism, NI's landscape, death, mental health and the moon! Other things on your collective mind were Mr Gooser, the charitable boss from heaven or hell (depends on your perspective, I guess), the eternal reflection of the razorblade, swallows at shallow heights, snow, closed accordion of sacked pleats, what is a mouse prayer, a tiny lament, chicken speak, the boxes we are born into, wild swimming, bullying, home is where you love. Lines we loved: The first coffin I carried was my own... Home I returned with five kids and four boulders... Their eyes slid off me like a human banana skin... My despair brings me home in an odd way to you... I'm barely human but am not a tree... Her story lies between the opening and closing of the eyes of men... I cut my roots and grew beautiful... (Not connected to the above poem but we ❤ the synchronicity) Take away thoughts: Why are we fighting like a mosh pit? Did you know stardust can cry itself to sleep? Are we drowning in a sea of grief? You don't have to be isolated to be alone? 50 Whiskeys in your Rice Krispies is the way to start the day! (drink responsibly, people) We miss you already, you attentive lot... Roll on 5th April! Many thanks to our readers on the night: Laura Morgan, William Howard, Michael Wilson, Rebecca Jane McConagall, Peter Adair, Rich Cathcart, Helen Hasting, Elizabeth McGeown, Brian Rooney, Richard Waring, Linda McKenna, Ryan McLean, Brian McCordie, Dan Eggs, Denise Donnelly, Will Donnelly, Brian McKirky, Rainbow, Laura Hutchison, Ellie Rose McKee, Chris Thackaberry and Mark Brownlee.
Today is the 80th anniversary of the passing of Irish poetry legend WB Yeats.
To mark the occasion, we're throwbacking to a playlist of fifteen poets from Northern Ireland reading their favourite Yeats poems, that we curated alongside Lagan Online, as part of the Yeats2015 project. The full list is: Maria McManus - Leda and the Swan Kathleen McCracken - The Second Coming Ross Thompson – Broken Dreams Geraldine Dardis O'Kane - The Song of the Old Mother Chris McLaughlin - September 1913 Stephanie Conn – When You Are Old Colin Dardis - A Coat Deirdre Cartmill - The Rose of Final Battle Adrian Rice – The Pilgrim Olive Broderick - To a Child Dancing Upon the Shore David Braziel – He Wishes For The Clothes of Heaven Jenny Cleland - The Lake Isle Of Innisfree Ray Givans – An Acre of Grass Joseph Allen – Her Praise Gary Allen - Remorse For Intemperate Speech 27 January is Holocaust Memorial Day, a day to everyone to remember the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, and the millions of people killed by Nazi Persecution and in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur. 27 January marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. Poetry NI and sister project Lagan Online have marked past Holocaust Memorial Days with the release of online chapbooks from writers within Ireland and beyond, reflecting on issues that remain as poignant and as relevant today as ever. All are downloadable for free, just link on the images below:
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