And the winners are…

Valentine’s Day is upon us, in case you haven’t noticed, and of course, the main event of the day (what you do later in the evening is your own business) is the announcement of the winners of the Grá mo Chroí poetry contest.

We had a great response and some real little gems of poetry submitted. Nina Loard, poet, editor, and organiser of #fieryverse a tremendous twitter poetry site, very graciously agreed to act as judge. We are especially grateful as she was in the final stages of publishing Neverlasting, her anthology of love poetry.

Here are the three winning poems
1.
Deep water forests
of kelp and the moss
green bones of lost ships:
your city of silence
whose streets I cannot walk.

By Yvonne Marjot ‏@Alayanabeth

2.
She writes her love on the wind
In light upon the water
In the pure line of a tern’s dive
From blue to blue
Reading, he smiles.

By Harriet Goodchild ‏@HMGoodchild

3.
the warship left.

in hawthorn trees
yesterday
he twist a twig ring

now in grief,
hand on the back
of her neck

it became gold.

By John Feaster ‏@JohnFeasterB Feb 9

And four runners up because there were too many good poems to just choose three.

1.
She meets her love by starlight
A shiver & a shimmer
Two swans rise from the black water
By Harriet Goodchild ‏@HMGoodchild

2.
In a howling wind
the hunt goes past,
wild geese in skeins.
Herne himself,
writhing in mist,
shakes his spear
By . Yvonne Marjot ‏@Alayanabeth

3.
Arise with me
Before dawn
Awakens with its golden flame
Alone together
We’ll weave a fire
So bright it puts the sun to shame
By Éilis Niamh ‏@EilisNiamh

4.
Niamh wept emerald tears
for her lover of so many years
she kissed his lips
bid him farewell
the isle of Eire
his death knell
By Merry Maiden ‏@QueenofCups99

Congratulations to the winners and runners up, and many, many thanks to all the poets who entered the contest. I wish everyone could have won.
Thanks to, to Nina Loard, our judge. You can find the Neverlasting: Poetry of Love Lust & Lechery anthology here.
I wish you would—I have three poems in it ☺

For the few people who haven’t yet got their copy, the Amazon links for Grá mo Chroí are here

Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk

You can find all of Ali Isaac’s books here
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk

And mine here
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk

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Grá mo Chroí poetry contest

Since Ali Isaac and I started on this retelling lark, we have been immersed in the language and the images of the tragedies of ancient people. We have both come to the conclusion that the sentiments of Iron Age people did not really diverge too much from our own, hence the poetry these stories have inspired us to write.
Being naturally reasonably sociable people, we would like to encourage anyone who feels the urge, to join in, let that poem out, and send it to the twitter hashtag:

#Gramochroi

Look on it as a contest. Get your tweet poems in before your midnight February 11th. Nina Loard of #Fieryverse has agreed to judge the entries. The two (I think it’s two!) winners will each receive a copy of one of our books.

Be inspired by long-haired girls running off with their chosen one, knives out to fight off pursuers, by death in treacherous ambush, sleeping and love potions, women transformed into hinds, warriors into boars, jealous kings, vengeful widows, undersea realms, horses that fly over the waves, and lovers who refuse to be parted even in death.

Thank you Mr Burne-Jones for coming up trumps again with an illustration.

Here’s the kind of thing we’re looking for:

The yew tree bows
beneath the weight of tears
and on a far hill
an apple tree reaches out
to her lost love.

(Jane)

Wind blows
Branches stir
Apple falls like a tear
Heart and body broken
Lost love stabs
Like a spear.

(Ali)

Just visit #Gramochroi to see lots more examples. And don’t forget to leave your own offering.