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The Poetry Kit

POETRY COMPETITION

To celebrate Liverpool as European Capital of Culture in 2008

supporting

Liverpool Methodist Youth Exchange

READ THE FIRST WINNING POEM BELOW

This is a poetry competition with a difference. First of all, the prize is publication on the front page of Poetry Kit where it will be seen by the 10 thousand visitors we have each day, there will also be a few other goodies to show our thanks, but no cash prize.. Secondly although there is no set fee to enter, there is a catch;

Over the next two years the Liverpool Methodist Youth Exchange programme will be organising an exchange of young people with the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands in the West Indies. This is an ideal opportunity for a group of young people to learn about each others cultures and to be involved in community projects. In 2008 a group from Merseyside will be spending a month in the West Indies living with families and working on projects. In 2009 the same young people will host a visit to Merseyside of a group from the West Indies. To do this we need to raise a considerable amount of money. So the entry fee is a donation of money to the "Liverpool Methodist Youth Exchange". It can be as little or as much as you want or can afford.

Entries to our competition should be accompanied by a cheque made payable to "Liverpool Methodist Youth Exchange" and we will pass it on to them. Alternatively you can send a donation directly to them at T.Halls, Liverpool Methodist Youth Exchange, 72 Vaughan Road, Wallasey, Merseyside, CH45 1LP. If you wish to enter by email you can, to info@poetrykit.org but let us know that you have made a donation to the Exchange. We are also looking for prizes that you may like to donate, books CD's, DVD's, anything really, and we will be giving those as prizes in this and other competitions and also using them later in the year for a poetry sale, raffle or lucky dip, again to raise money for the Exchange. So please help.

Now the competition; There will be six competitions over the year, each one of two months duration. Anyone making a donation will be eligible to enter each subsequent competition, although you can make a donations each time you enter or even if you don't. At the end of twelve months all of the winners and runners up will be considered for a special edition of our on-line magazine, Transparent Words.

Poems can be of any length or subject. There will be six competitions during the year, those making a donation are eligible to enter all of them if they choose. The closing date for the competitions are as follows;

31st January 2008

27th March 2008

31st May 2008

28th July 2008

30th September 2008

30th November 2008

Entries received after the closing date will be considered within the next round of the competition.

After each closing date a winner will be chosen and their poem will be published on Poetry Kit.

Entries should be sent to

Poetry Kit Competition

or may be submitted by email to info@poetrykit.org

Please remember to make any cheques for donations to;

Liverpool Methodist Youth Exchange

or can be sent through Pay Pal to a/c compact4pk@btinternet.com

Donations of items as prizes as explained above can be sent to the same address. The competition will be judged by the editors at Poetry Kit. The editors decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

If you have made a donation, however big or small you can send up to three poems into each round of the competition.

At the end of the year an overall winner will be announced.

General rules

1. The competition is open to anyone.

2. Poems should be in English, unpublished, not accepted for publication, and must be your original work.

3. Poems may be on any subject and in any form or style. They must be typed black type on a white plain background..

4. If typed each poem must be typed on a separate sheet of A4 paper. All poems are judged anonymously and should not bear your name, nor any other form of identification. On a separate sheet of A4 paper you should give your name and address, and a list of poems submitted. Poems submitted by email must be sent as a word attachment which do not carry any form of identification. In the body of the accompanying email there should be a name and address, inc email address and a statement saying that a donation has been made and the way in which it was made. You do not have to tell us the amount.

5. Please enclose a stamped addressed envelope for receipt of entry if required (marked RECEIPT) or for results sheet (marked RESULTS) This will not be sent until all of the competitions are complete.

6. Up to 3 poems may be submitted for each of our competitions on payment of a donation. Cheques and postal orders should be made payable to Liverpool Methodist Youth Exchange

7. The winners will be notified on the Poetry Kit website and by email. No person may win more than one prize. The prize-winning poems will be published in Transparent Words after November 2008 The decision of the adjudicator will be final, and there can be no correspondence concerning the result.

8. Entries should be addressed to:

The Competition Organiser, Poetry Kit, 50 Princesway, Wallasey, Merseyside, CH45 4PR

or by email to info@poetrykit.org

1st Place - Across the Water - Aileen La Tourette

We sashay off the trains, half-dressed at best,
flashing our boobs in tubes that barely hold
the nipples back from sticking out their little spouts
- one day we'll sit home,
weights attached to them, we've seen the Hoover-
suction in those tiny lips, dented cheeks
draining blue-veined lead balloons.
Why wouldn't we swashbuckle in skirtlets,
let neon dress our thighs in rainbow tights?
Why would we wear coats? One day we'll be coated
in cellulite, spare tyres, one day we'll sweat and swelter
with the Change. Think we don't know?
Why wouldn't we swill ignorance, trance to music, snog
like there's no tomorrow, clack back down the pavement,
swaying, drown out every nutter on the late last train?