Autumn Voices invites poems on the theme of ‘Counting’ (max 30 lines) for this year's competition which is open to entrants aged 60 or over. This year's judge is Margaret Elphinstone. Cash prizes plus publication on the Autumn Voices website.
We’re taking our theme of Counting from National Poetry Day. We hope that gives you lots of options, and we’ll be taking a broad rather than narrow view of the theme in what we look for. Poetry features metre, so you might be counting lines or syllables. You might write about weighing and measuring something – yourself, perhaps, or ingredients for a recipe. You might be counting off the days until something happens, or counting how long it’s been since something last happened – visiting a place, seeing a friend, undertaking an activity.
Poems must be written in English or Scots, and must be your own work (no translations, interpretations of others’ work, plagiarism or AI-generated content).
Prizes of £200 and £100 to be won, and the winning poems as well as any ‘Commended’ entries will be published on the Autumn Voices website.
Entries cost £5 for one poem, £9 for two and £12 for three.
Find out more here.
Deadline: midnight (UK time) on 31st October 2024
Image credit: Lauren Mitchell