In Gaza God Farms

Garden Of Weeds
By Mark Cantrell


Hate grows in the tended rows
Of coffins and body bags, all
Filled with its corpulent fruit.
Carefully planned,
The crop is
Meticulously nurtured
In the furrowed brows
And saline tears
Of despair’s thorny garden.
So flourish the tangled vines
Of petty prejudice, and
The foetid weeds of suspicion.
Foul rancour chokes
The lawns and flower beds of virtue,
Poison sours the becks and lakes
Of clarified reason,
Until the stench of bitter enmity
Reeks rank the air of sanity.
So we reap
The murdered harvest,
With crates of coffins, and fruits of bodies
Over-ripe to fertilise,
The next crop of hate and war...


Mark Cantrell,
Manchester,
25 July 2008


Copyright © July 2008. All Rights Reserved.

Category: POETRY

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Guineas From Frogmore

THE FROGMORE POETRY PRIZE 2009

Sponsored by the Frogmore Press

www.frogmorepress.co.uk

THE winner of the Frogmore Poetry Prize for 2009 is set to win two hundred guineas and a two-year subscription to The Frogmore Papers. The first and second runners-up will receive seventy-five and fifty guineas respectively and a year’s subscription to The Frogmore Papers.

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Poetry Prizes

Torriano Poetry Competition 2009

First Prize £250 Second Prize £150 Third Prize £75 Adjudicators: Nancy Mattson & Mike Bartholomew-Biggs

THE winning poets in the latest Torriano Poetry Competition will all be published in Brittle Star magazine. As if that's not enough, the first, second and third prize winners will be invited to read their work at the adjudication ceremony.

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Swarming Up

"Swarm" at the Beehive

Bradford's Beehive Poets has announced that its latest anthology of members work, "Swarm", is ready for release. Copies will be available at its next gathering at the New Beehive pub, Westgate, on Monday 12th January 2009, from 8pm. The readers for the night are Nicholas Bielby and Jeremy Young.

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A Kiss Before

Presenting Valentine's Eve

THE Mad Chadd Word Club is daring poets to venture out on the dark night of Friday 13 -- and risk falling under the thrall of seductive verse on Valentine's Eve.

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Private Poetry

New twists on David Lynch

THE Private Press seeks poetry contributions for its next anthology. Work submitted must explore the "twisted world" of David Lynch's Blue Velvet. Deadline for submissions is the 28th February 2009 and payment will be one copy of the chapbook. Poems will only be accepted through an on-line contribution form. 

Visit http://zoo.f2s.com/privatepress/callforpoems.html for further information and to access the submission form. 

ENDS 

Category: NEWS

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Be Aware!

Hell, No
By Mark Cantrell


Hell,
Is not a place,
Nor,
Is it other people.
Hell,
Is a state of mind.



Mark Cantrell,
Stoke-on-Trent,
3 December 2008


Copyright © December 2008. All Rights Reserved.

Category: POETRY

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When Elections Come

Voting Rights
By Mark Cantrell


A vote is far too precious
To waste
Upon scoundrels.
Thus
Do our votes
Go disenfranchised,
Unless we are fools,
For no honest man
These days,
Is ever known
To stand.


Mark Cantrell,
Stoke-on-Trent,
29 November 2008




Copyright © November 2008. All Rights Reserved.

Category: POETRY

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