The Sentinelle

Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition (January 2022)

2021-11-02T04:56:00.001-07:00

Closing 31.10.21 – Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition | Sentinel Literary Quarterly

2021-10-24T20:07:00.003-07:00

Details: This competition is for original, previously unpublished poems in English language, on any subject, in any style up to 50 lines long. You may also enter a visual poem if the image will fit into a single page. Poems posted on members-only non-public groups for review/critique as part of the creative process are not deemed to have been previously published. Poets of all ages, gender or nationality living in any part of the world are eligible to enter.

Prizes: £250 (1st), £125 (2nd), £75 (3rd), £30 x 3 (High Commendation),

£20 x 3 (Commendation), £10 x 3 (Special Mentions)

LEARN MORE AND ENTER COMPETITION NOW>>

Gabriel Griffin, Monday Writer, 10 August 2020

2020-08-10T00:00:00.002-07:00

Gabriel Griffin

After years living in cities – London, Rome, Barcelona, Venice, Milan, designing tableware and textiles, and helping organise seminaries and art exhibitions – I decided to bring up my children on a small island on a Pre-Alpine lake in Italy. I had always loved poetry and attended readings and performances in the various cities. I began to send poems to journals and competitions, and was encouraged especially by Kevin Bailey, the editor of the long-running HQ Poetry Magazine, and by winning first prize at Ripley, one of the first competitions I entered, in 1999. Since then my poems have often been prized and published in journals & anthologies: Temenos Academy Review, Orbis, Scintilla Journal, Aesthetica, Barnet Arts, Sentinel Literary Quarterly, Chalk Face Muse, White Adder, Blinking Eye, Private Photo Review, Ripley; Peterloo, Writers’ Forum, Norwich Writers, Poetry Life, Beehive Press, Ceth Uclan. and others (gabrielgriffin.org). I have also written Along the old way: a pilgrimage from Orta to Varallo in the company of Samuel Butler (Wyvern Works 2010); St Giulio’s Isle, a guide (Wyvern Works 2015), and various magazine articles. My novel The Monastery of the Nine Doors won 2nd in Yeovil 2017. I have won a number of first prizes including twice a 1st at: Plough (short poems), at Barnet Arts, and at Split the Lark, run by the late John Whitworth. My Gothic short story Hells’ Bells won Canterbury Save As Writers 1st prize in 2018. Missing live poetry events, I founded Poetry on the Lake in 2001, to bring poets to the lake; in this year of Covid, POTL’s 20th anniversary falls in October. Over the years, I have been fortunate to welcome to the island: Al Alvarez, Gillian Clarke, Anne Stevenson, Carol Ann Duffy, Imtiaz Dharker, James Harpur, John F. Deane, Brian Patten, Penelope Shuttle, and many others. www.poetryonthelake.org

The Monday Writer Interview

The Beginning

Listening comes first; when a child I heard and memorised nursery rhymes, a good foundation for absorbing rhythm and meter. Reading followed, and writing seemed to spring from reading quite spontaneously. When I was ten years old, a marvellous teacher encouraged me to read the Romantic poets aloud and to learn many poems by heart. In the years following, so inspired, I composed a few – certainly dreadful – poems; happily, I cannot remember any of them. Writing a poem comes easily only if I have a compelling first line in mind, then the rest of the poem appears to write itself. Without that first inspired line, I have to work hard, to correct and re-correct.

Themes

When I was a child, I lived always in the country, mostly by the sea in Wales, which has influenced my writing; often my stories and poems are inspired by herbs, especially the poisonous ones. At that time, it was possible for children to wander the countryside and shores alone; we had a freedom that modern children appear, sadly, to have lost.
Writing is for me an exploration; when I begin, I have no idea where I am going or what I will discover on the way. I follow wherever the poem leads, often to somewhere surprising to me. I tend to focus on small things or moments, details rather than the great themes – love, life, death.

Why she writes

I write because I love words, because it is a pleasure, and in order to uncover what lies below the surface.

Biggest challenge faced as a writer

Time alone! However, I hope I never have too much.

Best advice received from writers and non-writers

Al Alvarez was charming and encouraging; he gave me several books by modern poets that he recommended I read and said to ‘trust the words.’ Best advice from a non-writer came from a Venetian exhibition organiser who said ‘whatever the chaos or urgency, always sweep the floor’; in fact, a swept environment clears confusion from the mind.

Her advice to other writers

Love words, investigate their etymology, casually open and read a few lines of dictionaries, listen to poetry, plays – anything – on podcasts, audio recordings or the radio, (forget videos or live performances not every poet reads well, and video distracts from the words: their sound, their rhythm, the images they conjure.

Her books

The first book I wrote, many years ago, was a manual for users of portable video cameras and editing techniques, in Italian. Some years ago, I wrote ‘Along the Old Way, a pilgrimage from Orta to Varallo in the company of Samuel Butler’ and, recently, a guidebook to ‘St Giulio’s Isle’ where I live. I edited and self-published twelve anthologies of poems by poets who participated in the Poetry on the Lake events over the years. I never seem to have the time to organise my own poems, widely published in anthologies, into a collection, or to find an agent for my completed novel. At present, I am writing short stories – and have launched a Poetry on the Lake short story competition.

Best five books she has read

The first five that come to mind are Eliot’s Waste Land, anything by Ezra Pound – widely considered politically incorrect but such a great poet - Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur (the language is so beautiful), Edward FitzGerald’s version of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, most of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I would like to have written all of these – and many others.

Which writers have influenced her the most?

All the writers I have ever read have influenced me; those above the most – along with other poets such as Louis MacNeice, Garcia Lorca, Rilke, Dylan Thomas.

Does it matter if her writing is misunderstood?

Not really; it is not my intention to communicate meanings or messages. I have noticed that sometimes a comment about a poem of mine surprises me, but I let it go. The listener/reader is free to make of the poem whatever they wish.

The poems

Nicotiana tabacum
“... a viscid annual or short-lived perennial”

In Umbrian fields stooping, tanned, straw
hats over cotton fazzoletti, they slowly pan
down lines of green; flowers cow-lung pink,
clustered in a brazen showing. Heat
shimmers the scene unreal, a card discarded from
a faded pack, its colours smudged and blurring.
On shaded terraces we pour cool wine, gaze
while they heap baskets, barrows, carts, straighten
sighing, take the loads in lines to sheds, seeds
of sweat and tiredness shining.

No, thanks, I don’t! Leaves shrivel, twist,
contract like hands whose fingers yellowing
lose lymph, as they their cool ellipses.
Heat swirls the smoke haze of the shed;
in the darkening day a choking, bitter scent.

You cultivate flowers of your own; their petals
soft as ash, flyaway as clocks of dandelions.
Cut it out! Or down, at least. You’re young...
You laugh, inhale, breathe blossoms newly blown,
whorled, impalpable, feathery as down.
I close my eyes, see petals flake and fall, compose
loam where spores seed, mycelia creep
and black fungi slowly grow.

Lament for an illegal immigrant

No moon, but fishermen
are used to that and the sea’s chanting,
the descant of the nets. The decks
silvered with sea verses,
the minims and trebles of fish
hushed into songbooks of ice.

Something didn’t sing, humped
in the net, thudding onto the deck.
Its ears heard no notes, its eyes
were blind to the men standing round,
its throat choked with words
that no one would hear.

They let the sly octopus
sidle to the ship’s side, forgot to stop
the arch and leap of bream.
The sea moaned, the fish
slipped out of tune, the kittiwakes
hurled screeches like broken strings.

The men unfroze, thumped
what didn’t sing, what was lost for words,
over the hissing deck. Tipped that which
had no hope, had never had a hope,
back to the sea. No spoken
word, no hymn, no prayer.

But the wrack on the deck wept. The sea
beat its fists on the boat. And the wind got up
and howled till dawn.

The Nuns’ Araucaria

Not at all the kind of tree you’d expect to find
in a monastery garden. It squears above the wall
its giant fingers horning the heavens, effing
up at the skies. And the nuns who moved in have
left it there, yet chopped down
the stammering mimosa, the cherry whose blossom danced
a swan lake over the boughs, the sacred yew by the gate with
scarlet berries we plucked and sucked and spat at
the monastery well. But a monkey puzzle?

Was it an abbot who planted it, a symbol
of life’s labyrinth or of evil’s intricacies? Did he intend it
to stand as a speechless sermon long after he’d died?
Is it a warning of purgatory’s trials or a statement
of the life we are confusedly living: snared, squittering
in Fate’s mesh, while the Dark Hunter, unmoved,
looks on? Or does it symbolize nothing
at all, have no significance, is just a prelate’s whim,
a caprice to slip between the lines of the Rule?

From my window at night that tree plays games
with the stars, tracing Snakes and Ladders
over the mooning sky. Soundless as shadows nuns
slide under its boughs – who’s to tell if it grabs at their
veils or pricks them on their silent way? Or do they –
for some penance or for a sly joy – clamber
Into its bristly branches, struggle out of their
caught and cumbersome habits, and wriggle,
naked and lithe as monkeys, up to the winking stars?

Cistern

Turks don’t like
still water. In time they forgot
it was there, heavy, silent, pressing
under the quick streets, the fretted palace,
the sky-painted mosques; the fountains
threading silver sounds through the sun,
the voices dancing in the shade.

The cooks said nothing, slipping onto painted plates
white blind carp. Bought from one who
knew his way in the watery dark, dared
to row through the clammy columned maze,
dodge the Medusa’s stare, looped
in the chill vapours of the sunless damp.

When the slaughter began, I ran
through the shouting crowds, past the carts
of green cucumbers, spiced cakes, popcorn, baked
potatoes; choking on smoke from black
grills toasting sausages, kebabs, pink
floppy flesh, plunged

down the steps, slipping on the green slime of
vaults fifteen hundred years dark, into
an antique silence, away from
the screams of the dying, the butchers’
laughter, the crimson trickle in the gutter.

Pale fish slid under my feet, weaving
amber and black. I stepped over the water
hunting the Medusa, found her reversed, her eyes
reflecting Time’s waste. Should I stay, my life
turning to stone in an underground world?
Or return to the run and flow of blood
in the festive streets?

__________________________________________________________________

'Nicotiana tabacum' was first published in 4th Writers Bureau 2007.
'Lament for an illegal immigrant' was first published in Barnet Arts anthology 2010
'The Nuns’ Araucaria' was prized and published in Peterloo Poets Competition Anthology 2006

__________________________________________________________________

Monday Writer | editor@sentinelquarterly.com

SLQ Daily 09 August 2020

2020-08-09T02:10:00.000-07:00

On Mr Covid, Dragons and Ghosts

Our read of the day on the 9th of August 2020 is Mandy Pannett’s review of Jocelyn Simms’ Tickling the Dragon. Featured in this book is the poem ‘Les Fleurs d’Azur’ with which Simms won the first prize in the Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition in May 2016.

Our blast from the past today is ‘Ghosts’ – a poem by Durlabh Singh, author of Poems of Excellence. ‘Ghosts’ first appeared in Sentinel Poetry (Online) in May 2003.

Today, I have also chosen to give you a break from seeing a plug of the Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition closing on 31st October to be judged by Roger Elkin. This does not in any way at all mean that if you have been thinking of entering this weekend you should not do so. Chuckle! Sip coffee! Go on then, click on this link and do something about prizing your poem.

Finally, if today’s weather is great where you live, enjoy it to the max, responsibly, in safety. Please, please, don’t play chicken with that fellow Mr Covid. He does not play fair. Have a brilliant Sunday and be ready for a productive and blessed week ahead.

- Nnorom Azuonye.

Read of the day

Title: TICKLING THE DRAGON
Author: Jocelyn Simms
Publisher: Circaidy Gregory Press
Price: £8.99
Reviewer: MANDY PANNETT

Tickling the Dragon by Jocelyn Simms is a stunningly original and moving compilation of poetry, factual information, photographs and individual testimonies about the agony inflicted on the people of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and elsewhere. Tragedy on a massive scale.

The book, which the author describes as her ‘journey of discovery’ begins with sixteen of her own poems followed by historical notes. In the second part, ironically called ‘Island in the Sun’ we are confronted by the chilling impact of photographs taken and postcards with cheerful messages written at the time.

First, the poems. A kaleidoscope of grief though skilfully pared down and understated. Syntax shifts from poem to poem, voices speak in the first person, third person, as witnesses, survivors, as suffering animals. There is a wide range of tones – conversational, colloquial, detached and starkly factual, poignant and wonderfully lyrical. Throughout, there are undertones of irony – codenames, military terms, endearing nicknames for bombs juxtaposed with appalling, barbarous details.

There is an emphasis on time in the poems. The first poem in the sequence, ‘Cutie’ begins in 1918 at an apparently innocuous camp on Lake Ontario where a ‘brilliant boy’ is staying. A boy, they say, who is ‘brighter than a thousand suns.’ An optimistic beginning but the tone turns ominous as we are presented with shocking details about the boy being bullied and tied up as his genitals are covered with green paint. A clever twist in the last lines reveals the fourteen year old victim is the young Oppenheimer. ‘It must have been hell,’ is the author’s ironic comment.

The poem ‘Enola Gay’ continues the focus on time for this was the title of an anti-war song in 1980 with lyrics that contain the phrase about the fatal moment when the first atomic bomb was dropped: ‘it’s eight-fifteen, that’s the time it’s always been’. There are colours too: after the bomb the sky is ‘the prettiest blues and pinks’ while the carcass of Hiroshima leaves ‘a boiling rainbow’.

Jocelyn Simms has written a superb set of poems for Tickling the Dragon. The one that stands out for me for poignancy and sheer quality of writing is ‘Les Fleurs d’Azur’. The setting is Hiroshima, 6th- 8th August 1945. Horrors are depicted – clearly but without comment: ‘The undead, open-mouthed,/gulp as globules of black rain fall.’ When the mother discovers her daughter ‘A white liquid oozes from her. Maggots/spawn in yellow wounds.’ Horrors in abundance, almost too painful to read. But there is beauty as well, and compassion. The theme of this poem, in spite of everything, is love.

Following on from the remarkable set of poems in Tickling the Dragon we are given brief notes on the historical background – the facts, the statements, the evidence of secrecy, connivance, betrayal, the dreadful emphasis on measuring, testing, experimenting with no responsibility taken for actions but only a total indifference to life.

A skilfully presented section but then we have the impact of original photographs lovingly preserved by families – the young men on a burnt beach smiling into the camera, the postcards sent home with messages of hope saying that all will be well.

And as a backcloth to the images, the notes, the poems, we have all the un-written words, the un-heard voices of the dead and dying.

Tickling the Dragon is outspoken, brave and superbly written. An important book. Read it for yourselves and you’ll see.

It seems appropriate to end this review with Jocelyn Simms’ own comment and the quotation she has chosen:

"Until we take responsibility for our actions, maybe heed the Navajo chant ‘Remember what you have seen, because everything forgotten returns to the circling winds,’ the cycle of war, tyranny and vengeance will continue." SLQ

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Mandy Pannett is the author of All the Invisibles
Web page https://sentinelquarterly.com/mandy-pannett/
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Blast from the past

DURLABH SINGH
Ghosts

So many ghosts in wandering nights
Clutching at the strings of the heart
A song of dissonance in progress
Sweeping away with long bony fingers
The partial parchments of the syntax.

So many motions in wandering nights
Striking the moon , thundering clouds
Onslaughting mind with sharp edges
Raising voices in apostles of whispers.

Starry nights in the processes of culling
The ghosts resident of the skies
The winds scratching at windowed pane
There is a turbulence in the heavens
Perhaps constructing protections
Against the shadows of the driven.

**********

'Ghosts' by Durlabh Singh was published in Sentinel Poetry (Online) Magazine, May 2003. Singh is the author of Poems of Excellence.

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SLQ Daily 08 August 2020

2020-08-08T00:32:00.000-07:00

Read of the day

DAVID LOHREY
Bombardier to Captain

First the sky, black or blue, depending on the time.
By day, Memphis blazes, 100 degrees in the shade;
the sky, robin blue. At night, there are lightning bugs galore
and stars, eerie, dazzling and quiet, as from the Mississippi,
slaves once dragged bales across cobblestones.

The bridge was too far so we stayed where we were, stuck
forever between the Overton Zoo and Beale. We played
in the yard with daggers. We burned each other’s toes.
The bull dog Prime Minister humped our legs
while the Afghans ran in circles chasing dust. We ate potato
chips at midnight and cried in our sleep: let’s go back tomorrow.

Color of my eyes? Mother’s? It was morning glories we beheld,
not roses. Roses come in black, not in blue. I did see father
many times but I don’t remember his eyes. White and black
photographs show us in our pajamas with little bows
and arrows scrawled across the tops.
Bugles and drums decorated our blue bottoms.

How large the Pippin loomed over the police academy.
German shepherds lunged at padded arms as men in black
set fires with smoke as thick as cotton candy. The elevators
at the Century Building were open by day. We ran in
hoping for a ride to the top of the world;
secretaries chased us out into the bright sun.
.
The horizon was on the other side of the river, but nobody dared
cross that bridge. We were stay-at-home types, little chickens.
Everything was thought the best. I believed the art gallery in
Overton Park was bigger and better than the Met.
Second rate was not only good enough.
“Who the hell do you think you are?”

The Pink Palace was dad’s fortress of art and power, in costumes
he designed himself: a clown, some whimsy, a melancholic
smile, despair, or an oriental stare; in make-up and girdles,
a sword, a pistol, a tunic or robe, tights and sandals,
shaped from plastic or leather. Father directed:
Give them some cleavage. Show ‘em your tits.

Not wanting to stay—please no longer. Not one more hour, not
another minute, not five measly seconds more. Mother couldn’t
get out of town fast enough. Father could ruin a dinner over
a lousy buck. Kool-Aid or pudding? Take one or the other.
The grand master had little to give;
it was all show but no tell. I’ll have another martini.

This December, the trees in our yard will come down,
felled by an ice storm. It feels right that the old man is dead.
His heart was black and blue. He beat himself up and beat me,
too. When I think of Memphis I think of death, but not
from long ago. Brother Martin was first to go
and then Vernon Presley’s loving son.

Dad’s gone now, thank goodness; there’s only mother.
The dogwoods stand silent, as her eyes watch, laughing.
There’s much comfort knowing how much she loves the bluff.
All the memories are gone. The Old Forest full of heavy growth
lures us back but all we find is an empty lot,
a ghost town called invention.

**********

David Lohrey’s plays have been produced in Switzerland, Croatia, and Lithuania. His poetry can be found in Otoliths (AUS), Tuck Magazine (UK), Terror House (Hungary), Sentinel Literary Quarterly (UK) and the Cardiff Review (Wales). His fiction can be read online at Dodging the Rain, Storgy Magazine, and Literally Stories. David’s collection of poetry, Machiavelli's Backyard, was published by Sudden Denouement Publishers (Houston, 2017). He lives in Tokyo. 'Bombardier to Captain' was commended in the Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition (November 2018) judged by Dominic James.
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VISHISHTA
Family Problems

My brother is killing again
He left the house
early this morning
a red gleam
in his eye
his gun swinging
from his hip
No one could stop him.

My four AM darkness
is full of children
screaming
Their mothers frantic
to protect them
My brother
lifting his gun
again.

We huddle sadly
in the house
the neighbors murmur
against us
no flowers grow
this Spring
no drugs to blunt
the pain
our dreams replaced
by cash
our fine house haunted.

**********
'Family Problems' by Vishishta was published in Sentinel Poetry (Online) Magazine, May 2003. Native to Southern California, Vishishta grew up in the tumultuous and inspiring 60s. Starting out writing short stories, she published short surreal epiphanies in underground newspapers. Gradually, she changed to writing songs, then poems, then back to short stories and now back to poems. She is the author of Eros - a collection of poems.
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Competition

Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition
Closing date: 31 October 2020
You are invited to enter your poem or suite of poems in the Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition (October 2020) to be judged by Roger Elkin. This competition is for original, previously unpublished poems in English language, on any subject, in any style up to 50 lines long.
Prizes: £250 (1st), £100 (2nd), £50 (3rd), £30 x 3 (High Commendation), £15 x 3 (Commendation), 3 x SLQ magazine paperback (Special Mentions.)
Entry Fees: £5/1, £8/2, £10/3, £12/4, £14/5, £16/7, £22/10
For full terms and conditions, to enter online or by post, the address is
https://sentinelquarterly.com/competitions/poetry
Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition
Prizing poetry...since July 2009

SLQ Daily | Like & Follow us on Twitter and Facebook

SLQ Daily - 07 August 2020

2020-08-06T23:45:00.001-07:00

Read of the day

HARSH RAMCHANDANI
Third Culture Kid

Across the aisle sweet grapes
and proud strawberries scream
at me. How dare I reach out
to them and their sentiments.

Next to me lay lychee, longan
and Spanish lime. Foreign yet
somehow familiar. Why did I sit
beside them? They never knew.

Even amongst the common oranges
I feel the sting of their citrus
and migrate towards the pears.
How bland and miserable they are.

**********
Harsh Ramchandani is a Hong Kong based creative artist with a background in media. He has dabbled in the visual arts, sound design, and more recently in the world of creative writing. 'Third Culture Kid' won third prize in the Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition in November 2018 judged by Dominic James.
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Blast from the past

CHUKWUMA AZUONYE
Lament Of The Sky I

Red shadows against vermillion plains
Broken bodies mangled limbs and eyes staccato

Shadows living and partly living shadows
Drifting in splendour vacuum of green waste

Hands puckering out of faces
Feet cancering out of necks

Three-headed babies with rabbit-babies
Grinning white skull teeth maizecob-compact
At the white satanic face of the sky

Red groans of the silence
In silence

The hoofed-man debris of men
Grotesque tailed egg broken furred in redseadeath:

Pendulous scrotal sacs growing out of human eyes
Out of vultures's heads floating
In the greenplain cannonlaughter
Of rainwashed emptiness

Distorted incarnations
Out of the beleaguered wombs of the earth:
Open vestibules between thighs drawn apart
Latched by booted feet growing out of a woman's breast
A dismembered penis is floating across parted lips
Under the seer batwings of the lethal sky

The power and the glory of centuries
The silence of the sky

Now the giant irokohead of black smoke
Fades with the memory of the dead

Out of the breakages
Sprout leaves of grass
Fresh
Green
Beautyfull!

The sun in goldsea rains at dawn or dusk
Without light and warmth

The bomb-craters are lakes of green
Where fall the shadows
Where float red smell of putrid flesh
Where shine golden stars
Eight-pointed golden stars
In haloed coronets on the head of darkness

White shadows of the red nightmare
Crushed testicles on green grass
The yellow smell of death in the flames of flowers.

**********
'Lament Of The Sky I' by Chukwuma Azuonye from his collection Testaments Of Thunder: Poems of Crisis and War (Nsibidi, 2002) was published in Sentinel Poetry (Online) Magazine, May 2003.
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Competition

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POETRY COMPETITIONS 2020

2020-08-05T04:48:00.012-07:00

SEPTEMBER 2020

Manchester Writing Competition. This international contest from Manchester Writing School at the Manchester Metropolitan University was originally inaugurated to celebrate ‘the substantial cultural and literary achievements of Manchester’, of which I am unable to give an example at this time. My childhood memories of Manchester are centred around Moss Side where my father for a time ran a fast-food business (chip shop, as we called it back then). I was kept locked in the cellar peeling spuds, with a 15-watt incandescent light bulb for company. It was there in that creepy dungeon, while peering into the dark corners, that I developed my vivid imagination - not to mention my nervous twitches. Culture? Literature? Be serious. But times, I suppose, have changed. So let us return to the competition, which is for poems and short stories. To enter the Poetry category you submit a portfolio of three to five poems, these to consist of no more than 120 lines in total. For the Fiction Prize the requirement is for a story running to no more than 2,500 words in any genre.
    Closing: 18.9.20 (5pm).
    Prize (in each category): £10,000.
    Entry Fee: £18.00.
    Comp Page: MMU Writing Comp.

OCTOBER 2020

Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition (October 2020)

Closing Date: 31 October 2020

Judge: Roger Elkin - author of 'Marking Time' & 'Fixing Things'

Details: This competition is for original, previously unpublished poems in English Language, on any subject, in any style, up to 50 lines long. Poets of all nationalities living in any part of the world are eligible to enter.

Prizes: £250 (First), £100 (Second), £50 (Third), £30 x 3 (High commendation), £15 x 3 (Commendation) and 3 x Sentinel Literary Quarterly paperback (Special mention)

Entry fees: £5/1, £8/2, £10/3, £12/4, £14/5, £16/7 and £22/10 poems.

Enter online or download Entry Form for postal entries at

https://sentinelquarterly.com/competitions/poetry/index.htm

27 July 2020 | Sentinel Literary Quarterly

2020-07-27T09:01:00.001-07:00

In SLQ Daily 27 July 2020:

Read of the day: WILL DAUNT - 'Tony's Next' - highly commended in the Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition (August 2019) judged by Roger Elkin

Blast from the past: C. HIGHSMITH-HOOKS - 'The Day the Towers Fell' first published in Sentinel Poetry (Online) Magazine February 2003.

Happy reading.

NOA slqdaily@sentinelquarterly.com

27 July 2020 | Sentinel Literary Quarterly

Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition - international, open, poetry contest

2020-07-25T14:09:00.001-07:00

Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition - international, open, poetry contest

Jim Friedman | Sentinel Literary Quarterly

2020-04-17T04:56:00.001-07:00

Jim Friedman | Sentinel Literary Quarterly

Adjudication Report and Results, Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition August 2019

2019-10-14T20:13:00.001-07:00

David Duncombe, Ruth Calway, Jack Faricy win top three prizes in Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition (August 2019) judged by Roger Elkin

See the full results and read the adjudication report here: Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry & Short Story Competitions Results Page

Sentinel Poetry Book Competition 2019 - Shortlist

2019-10-02T21:45:00.005-07:00

We are pleased to announce a shortlist of 5 collections in the 2019 Sentinel Poetry Book Competition selected by judge Noel Williams as follows (in no particular order):

A. C. Simple - Marrowbones
Bright Side - Personal, impersonal
Ruth Goodyer - Class, dismissed
Pamela Ffordd - The Way and the Wye
Tony Raptor - The Receiver of Wrecks

The shortlisted poets have been notified and are now putting together their full collections for Stage Two of the competition.

If you entered this competition and would like the judge's feedback on your entry, please let us know. You may choose to get feedback on the 20 poetry pages you entered or what would have been your full collection if you had gone through to the second stage. There is a charge for this critical feedback and manuscript service. Send feedback enquiries to admin@spmpublications.com

Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition (May 2019)

2019-03-05T22:03:00.000-08:00

We are now accepting entries for the Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition (May 2019) to be judged by Terry Jones.
This competition is for original, previously unpublished poems in English Language, on any subject, in any style, up to 50 lines long (excluding title).
First prize: £250.00
Second prize: £100.00
Third prize: £50.00
High commendation: 3 x £30.00
Commendation: 3 x £15.00
Special Mentions: 3 x SLQ Magazine paperback
All winning, commended and specially mentioned poems will be published in the July – September Sentinel Literary Quarterly magazine

For full terms, to enter online now or download Entry Form for postal entry visit our competition page http://www.sentinelquarterly.com/competitions/poetry/index.htm.

Closing 28-Feb-2019 | Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition - international, open, poetry contest

2019-02-15T07:39:00.001-08:00

Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition - international, open, poetry contest

Sentinel Poetry Book Competition 2018 Shortlist announced

2019-01-01T20:13:00.000-08:00

We are pleased to announce the shortlisted collections in the Sentinel Poetry Book Competition 2018 judged by Noel Williams.

In no particular order the shortlisted collections are:

Poetry After Auschwitz by Dan Evans

The Lost Saints by Gabe Hardy

A Bluebottle in Late October by Charles Hugo

Mock Orange by J Pater

Watching the Door by M. Scarf

The shortlisted poets will now submit their full collections for Stage 2 of the competition by the 31^st January 2019.

Critical Feedback

Poets who entered the competition, but their collections have not been shortlisted, may request a critical feedback on their work from the judge. There is a fee of £20.00 for this in-depth feedback on the 20 pages of poetry submitted. Different terms apply if a poet wishes to receive feedback on a full collection. Send all enquiries for feedback to competitions@sentinelpoetry.org.uk

Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition - international, open, poetry contest

2018-07-19T16:19:00.001-07:00

Closing August 7, 2018, Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition. Judge: Roger Elkin
Enter online or by post at http://sentinelquarterly.com/competitions/poetry/index.htm

Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition - international, open, poetry contest

A Time for Every Matter

2018-05-31T22:43:00.001-07:00

A Time for Every Matter: A short story by John P. Asling This is Grace’s moment. Just step into the aisle. Make your way up to the front of the church. To the microphone standing erect beside that man framed in the …

Sentinel Literary Quarterly - April - June 2018

2018-05-31T07:17:00.001-07:00

You are invited to read the April - June issue of Sentinel Literary Quarterly magazine.

Read at no cost online now or buy a hardcopy for your library, or as a gift for a dear one.

Sentinel Literary Quarterly: The Magazine of World Literature. ISSN 1756-0349 (Print), ISSN 1753-6499 (Online)

Visit www.sentinelquarterly.com

Newsletter Subscription

2018-05-23T18:55:00.000-07:00

Subscribe free of charge to the Sentinel Writing & Publishing Newsletter. This is a single subscription form for all styles of the Sentinel Writing & Publishing Company including Sentinel Poetry Movement, Sentinel Literary Quarterly and SPM Publications.

From June 2018, our Newsletter will go out twice a month; on the 1st and 15th days of every month. We will never share your details with a third party. You may unsubscribe at any time.

If you are already a subscriber, we need you to confirm that you wish to continue to receive emails from us by updating your preferences and profile at NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIPTIONS

Final call: Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition - international, open, poetry contest

2018-02-27T17:29:00.002-08:00

There is still time to surprise judge Mandy Pannett with your poems
in the current Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition closing at midnight 28th February 2018. Postal entries must be postmarked 28/02/18

if you have written a champion poem, prize it today. £440 prize fund + publication.

Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition
Prizing poetry...since July 2009

http://sentinelquarterly.com/competitions/poetry/index.htm

Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition - international, open, poetry contest

Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition - international, open, poetry contest

2018-02-20T03:58:00.001-08:00

8 DAYS LEFT TO ENTER THE SENTINEL LITERARY QUARTERLY POETRY COMPETITION (FEBRUARY 2018)
Prizes: £200 / £100 / £50 / £20 x 3 / £10 x 3
Judge: Mandy Pannett
http://sentinelquarterly.com/competitions/poetry/index.htm

Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition - international, open, poetry contest

SPM Publications | Mad Weekend Promotion

2018-02-19T02:22:00.001-08:00

The Sentinel Mad Weekend Promotion extended to 19.59 19-Feb-2018
Great response from Sentinel supporters across the world,
but we really will close off the offer at 8pm tonight.

Get a hard copy of Sentinel Literary Quarterly magazine delivered free of charge to your door worldwide. All for just 4 quid.

Alternatively, enter 5 poems in the current Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry competition at the regular £12.00 and we'll send you a free copy of the magazine of your choice from the 7 on offer.

Go there now SPM Publications Hot Offers - http://www.spmpublications.com/shop/hot-offers.html

SPM Publications | Mad Weekend Promotion

Read of the day: Hermit - a poem by Penny Hope

2018-02-15T17:46:00.001-08:00

History’s Footnote: the fly – a poem by Roger Elkin

2018-02-13T18:36:00.000-08:00

Results and Judge's Report, SPM Publications Poetry Book Competition 2017

2018-01-04T16:56:00.000-08:00

By ROGER ELKIN

First Prize

Molly Donachie - Icarus

For the main part, the poems in this collection inhabit a world of private and personal events and memories, many of which are written about in epigrammatic structures using freshly-minted and freely-associative imagery. The subject matter centres on intimate moments – small domestic matters such as the significance of a trailing thread, the challenge of running for a bus, the desire of mothers wanting to join in with a game of skipping-rope. This exploration of everydayness with its possibilities, accidents and contradictions is couched in fine detail which reveals the innernesses of things, the otherwise unknown or unperceived. This is particularly so in a series of family poems in which the reader is allowed only a partial glimpse into distant memories and happenings, so for example we don’t know the full story of Auntie Feenie’s life, but are there to share her resilient fight against authority and her refusal to give in. Exploring more generally-experienced concerns, several poems make reference to Biblical and classical personages and events (Solomon, Achilles, Troy, and Icarus in the imaginatively-perceptive title-poem), or more recent cultural icons (St Therese of Carmel, Marilyn Monroe, and Lech Walesa); and others focus on the worlds of artists (Breughel, van Gogh, Klee, Giacometti, Callum Innes, and Cezanne visiting Pissarro) in which the descriptions of the painter’s craft, dedication and insights are used to illustrate and illuminate the everyday. Of the poems using the natural world as backcloth for the human dilemma, two deserve particular mention. In Moon Halo, the effective description of the halo-ed moon widens to make reference to the nativity of Christ, “a halo-ed babe”, and then expands to an all-embracing concern of mothers for their new-born children. In Camouflage, another moon, this time “hazy”, serves as a vehicle to introduce a catalogue of actions of deception in both the human and animal world, the latter skilfully and sensitively described with exact verbal precision and rich diction. The writing throughout the collection is confident and authoritative, and there is a tone of hushed questing and questioning, of probing boundaries beyond the reach of secretiveness. This is an intriguing and satisfying collection, whose treasures are revealed by careful and repeated readings. It should be on every poetry lover’s reading list.

Second Prize

Konstandinos Mahoney - Tutti Frutti

This is challenging and rewarding poetry which engages the reader by its startling juxtaposition of the familiar with the new. In several poems, mythical referencing is refashioned into contemporary events, so that the imagined past brings its pains and mystery to consequence in an occasional nightmarish present; for example, the story of Poseidon is used to comment on the bed-bathing of a wheel-chaired father in moments of “crippled tenderness”; while a black boy falling to his suicidal death in Mortlake is depicted as a modern-day Icarus. In others, the presentation of separate lives and experiences running contiguously is employed to explore the tenuous hold on reality, so in Hell’s Kitchen combat soldiers (“each with a curved blade” and a “personal butcher for every man”) viewed while TV channel-hopping are paralleled with a celebrity chef showing “how to butterfly lamb”. Other poems, located both at home or in far-flung places (among them, the Far East, Greece, Prague and Canada), explore the complexities of emotionally-close relationships: the needs of love, and losing love, the ache of separateness, and the desires and pains between estranged people and generations. The cultural referencing ranges widely: from Mozart, Oscar Wilde, E. M Forster, via Roger Bacon and Cavafy, to Little Richard, Cliff, The Sugarbabes and popular songs such as “I do like to be beside the seaside”, and is used to explore issues shared in place and time with ordinary people. Throughout, the writing is disciplined and mature. Its penetrating observations are detached and assured and recorded in sensory detail couched in imaginatively-coined imagery, honed by wit. This is a remarkable collection which demands close and repeated reading.

Third Prize

John Lindley - Love & Crossbones

This collection is the work of a committed writer who is building on the poetic tradition to open challenging insights into what it is to be human. The resultant variety of subject matter is handled with imagination, verbal precision and originality of imagery in a range of poetic forms from tightly-structured sonnets to lengthy free-verse celebrations which, at times, approach the level of mantra. Several poems probe issues of religious and spiritual faith, both personal and public, in a searching and essentially positive manner. Others offer tender and vivid portrayals of family members, and explore the boundaries between generations and gender in a fusion of humour, wit and delicate suggestibility. There are moving memorials to “names carved in stone” and “the unknown voices” of the dead of the First World War, and the Grenfell Tower fire respectively. Other poems are peopled by a gallery of notables: among them, Heads of State (Napoleon, George VI, and J. F. Kennedy); film stars (Micky Rooney, Fay Wray and King Kong); artists (van Gogh, and Toulouse Lautrec); poets (John Keats, Emily Dickinson, Christina Rossetti, Walt Whitman, and Edward Lear); novelists (Mark Twain, J.M. Barrie, Lewis Carroll, J.D. Salinger, and R. L. Stevenson); and, most notably, popular singers and performers (Paul Simon, Bessie Smith, Buddy Holly, Hank Williams, Eddie Cochran and Elvis) – notably because, above everything else, this poetry sings! All the crafting techniques of rhyme, metre, rhythm, alliterative and assonantal patterning are skilfully employed to create memorable and life-affirming poems that have a propulsive energetic drive. This rich collection is powerful and moving. Buy it; read it; cherish it!