Padraic Fallon Poetry Competition
Deadline: 16th September 2021: Free Entry
The Padraic Fallon Poetry Competition opens for submissions on Wednesday 18th August and closes at midnight on Wednesday 15th September 2021. A shortlist of ten poems will be announced on the Athenry Arts & Heritage Centre’s Facebook page and the winners of the first and second prizes will be invited to attend and read their poem at a special evening event on the 18th September, which is part Athenry’s Poetry Town programme. The overall winner will be announced at this event.
Prizes
Over 18 First Prize: €100 and copy of the medieval seal of Athenry
Over 18 Second Prize: €50
Under 18 First Prize: €100 and copy of the medieval seal of Athenry
Under 18 Second Prize: €50
Submission Information
- The competition is open to original and unpublished poems.
• The poems should not be more than 20 lines.
• Cost of entry: Free
• One judge: poet and novelist Elaine Feeney. Her decisions are final.
• Once entered, no changes can be made to the submission.
• It will not be possible to notify the authors of non-winning poems or to give individual feedback.
Email Entry
- Send to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Subject line: Padraic Fallon Poetry Competition
Attachments:
- Each poem in a separate Word document. (PDF format cannot be accepted)
• Times New Roman 12 and single spacing. Please use the title of the poem as the title of each document. Do not write your name or other personal details anywhere on this document, as the competition is judged anonymously.
• A cover letter as a separate Word document attached to the same email, NOT in the main body of the email. This should include your name, email address, phone number, postal address and poem title(s).
Postal Entry
No postal entries accepted
Judge: Elaine Feeney
Elaine Feeney is an Irish poet, novelist and playwright. Her writing focuses on "the central themes of history, national identity, and state institutions, and she examines how these forces structure the everyday lives of Irish women". A former slam poetry winner, she has been described as "an experienced writer who has been wrestling with poetry on page and on stage since 2006 and in 2015 was heralded as "one of the most provocative poets to come out of Ireland in the last decade". Her work has been widely translated, including into Italian, Lithuanian, and Slovene.
Feeney's debut novel, As You Were was published by Penguin Random House, under the Harvill Secker imprint, on 20 August 2020. In January 2020 the Observer newspaper choose Feeney as one of the best debut novelists of the year and the book has been shortlisted for the 2021 Folio Prize and the Dalkey Literary Award (Emerging Writer) 2021.
Winners of the Padraic Fallon Poetry Competition
1st Prize Over 18: Glen Wilson with 'A charm of Goldfinches'
Runner Up: Bernie Crawford 'The Ash Tree At Night'
1st Prize Under 18: Fionna Anne McKree 'Raven'
Runner Up: Lisa Cunningham 'They say'
A charm of goldfinches by Glen Wilson
The mornings are all mine,
you work late, that’s the excuse
our silences agreed upon,
sunrises crack its poor cipher.
I search for another life;
a small family of goldfinches
make a nest from the broken twigs
and debris of promises,
the mother teaches the chicks
that it is spring and they must sing,
just as the father returns
and sets down a worm in baritone.
And still I wait for you, for a key
to turn in the door but the threshold
has always been the window
and it is open. It is open right now.
Runner Up: Bernie Crawford 'The Ash Tree At Night'
The Ash Tree at Night
I always thought that you were mine: the reach of your bulk
into the sky; the blot of you against the night. Once I stayed up
to catch the moment when you shape-changed from menacing
to benign. Of course that got occluded by a charm of goldfinches
that flew from your underarm as you stretched upwards in the
dawn wash of bright. And, maybe I imagined this, but it seemed
you touched your night-black-dipped twigs to my eyes and
reminded me that I have lived in the shadow of other trees too:
a bountiful avocado, that dropped gifts of soft, firm flesh; flesh
that rotted when over-ripe. When I cut through bramble,
the underwood at your base, I saw you stood on the other side
of my drystone boundary wall. I always thought that you were mine
RAVEN by Fionna Anne McKree
My name
is beads of crimson
on a flap of shadow wings;
My shriek is death’s silhouette
To all who hear my cry;
My scent is rage and cinder ash
Casting omens on battlefields
Like the Night Wolf’s howl before
the hunt.
The brush of my wings on a shoulder
lays a cloak of decaying prophesy
to bring down heroes of all kinds:
Cúchulainn, Conair Mór,
The invaders of Mag Tuireadh.
Scan the skies,
Watch your step,
Look behind you,
I’ll be coming for you next—
MY NAME IS THE MÓRRÍGÁN.
They say by Lisa Cunningham
They say that We need to get out of that online feed,
That What we need to be thinking about is amongst the reeds
But some of us, we live in built up cities
And have never touched a water Lilly
We’re covering up fossils, and we’re melting our snow,
Our animals are dying; that’s what we need to know
We need to be aware, yes Trump its real,
It’s called global warming and its an appeal,
To all the charities to the volunteers.
To all of the people who clapped and who have cheered,
I’m telling you now what you need to hear.
GLOBAL WARMING IS A THREAT AND NOT A FEAR!
Houses are falling, being flooded too
Diseases are killing the wars are causing a hullabaloo.
Poverty Is growing, the rich are cruel;
They won’t give a penny to save them, THEY’RE BLOODY FOOLS!
So, plant some trees,
Don’t put so much in the landfill
And together we can make a difference,
To the world to the world that we all fill.
