Month: October 2021

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Adelaide Plains Poets Poetry Competition

carolyncordon

The competition has been held, the poems entered judged, and winners announced. Now it is time to show the judges’ reports, and details released to the public.

Judge’s  Report  Open Section  Adelaide  Plains  Poets  Inc  

Poetry Competition  2021  “Recovery”

Our competition topic has proved to be very relevant to our nation’s circumstances today. I was very impressed with the high standard of the 50 entries received. The poems entered expressed the idea of recovery from quite a variety of troubles and misfortunes.

It was not easy to choose the finalists. In the end I looked for poems that were emotionally or intellectually moving. I also looked for good descriptive writing and positive messages about recovery. I have to say that there was not much between these poems and I congratulate the authors on their excellent writing. With these factors in mind, I have chosen the following place getters and commendations: 

First Place;  Salvation   by David Campbell

I was impressed by the use of “needlepoint” as a metaphor for the process of recovery. It describes a deeply personal recovery from great suffering which has much relevance to life for far too many people in the present day.

Second Place  .An Honest Man   by James Kent

This poem I felt would easily bring a tear to the eye of many a reader of this well-told story. Although set in our past times, it encourages the present-day espousal of such values as honesty, kindness and compassion in the process of recovery.

Third Place  Healing   by Shelley Hansen

Although short, this is an excellent portrayal of the need for patience and the giving of comfort in assisting in a person’s recovery. I was impressed with the form of the poem.

Commended

In addition to the above awards, there were four poems which deserve commendation, but not listed in any particular order.

Determination:   by Claire Watson. A great story describing personal determination. Well told. 

Asperger’s Eyes:  by David Campbell. Excellent portrayal of a deeply personal story.

The Stranger: by Nathan Curnow This prose poem has such a positive message about showing care and concern in providing assistance in a person’s recovery.Raindrops:  by ‘Toni Brisland, nee Antonette Diorio.  Good use of metaphor to describe the transformation of a city as it recovers from lockdown.

Judge’s  Report  Student Section  Adelaide  Plains  Poets  Inc  

Poetry Competition  2021  “Recovery”

I don’t think I can ethically nominate a secondary poem winner. They all spoke of pain and tragedy with a time mention at the end of recovery, but didn’t speak of actual recovery or that process. 
My primary ones were  ; 1st prize Emily McCarthy as it was unique and quirky : 2nd prize went to Isha Mittal and Sophie Dowsette as commended

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Back Again, Been Playing On Another Platform …

carolyncordon

Being a writer and poet, as well as blogger, that is a thing that interests me, and even though this particular blog is my definitely my favourite one of all of my blogs, it isn’t a ‘money-raising’ kind of blog. That’s OK, there are more things to life than money …

But in this world, too many people tend to value people and things by what they’re worth in monetary terms. I’m not one of those people. I love the way this particular blog, and some of the things I’ve written about here, have connected me to a lovely bunch of people all around the world.

Some of those people helped me with a project I’d presented details of here, and I went on to create something, using their input. It was an anthology I edited, containing creative writing responses to Covid-19. “Plague Invasion” was the name of that anthology, and I am happy with the way it looks, and reads.

That project more or less held me captive, from April last year, up until the book was launched in August this year. So that book is ‘out there’ now, and it was time for something else. That something else, was the online platform Medium. This is a link to my Medium page, if you’re interested in seeing what I have posted there.

The thing that makes Medium different to WordPress, is that I can make money from people reading my articles on Medium. On my WordPress blogs, I may get comments, and have good discussions here, at times, but no money from it, unless discussion leads to something more, like selling a book, or getting a writing related gig.

I’m not actually making mega-bucks on this Medium platform though, although ‘legend has it’ that some people make thousands of dollars a month. So far, that hasn’t been my experience. I am enjoying being a part of that other online writing world though, and have been writing articles on a variety of different subjects.

Anything that prompts more writing, whether something that makes money, or not, I feel it is a good thing. I love writing, and connecting with other people through my words … It is a global platform with many interesting writers, most of them from the USA, I think, but many from other countries too.

I’ve written about Multiple Sclerosis, dogs, writing, making connections with people, health, ill health, Covid-19, Gratitude, and so on. Random? No just an example of the broad range of things that interest me …

I think looking at other options, whatever it is you’re doing, is important if things are beginning to seem a bit ‘same old, same old’. A holiday from WordPress certainly inspired lots of writing, and doing lots of writing always feels like a good thing to me! I’m a writer, I write!

And doing things that feel good, yay, I can sense those healthy chemicals coursing through me! Well, let’s say I can imagine them, rather than actually ‘sense’ them. Is that the same thing? Nearly but not quite, I guess …

That’s fine, almost but not quite is good enough for lots of things! Although sometimes things must be exactly correct. But other times, getting creative, and swapping times, ingredients, colours, temperatures, and so on can lead to even better things. Creativity can be an awesome thing!

So hello to you, if you’re one of my followers/friends and maybe we’ll meet up again on Medium!