Our congratulations to John Baylis Post, winner of the 4th Five Words competition, for his poem Identifications. John will read at Ó Bhéal’s 10th anniversary event on April 10th 2017, along with other contributors to Five Words Vol X. Our congratulations also to all of the shortlisted entrants, and for highly commended entries from Siobhan Campbell (who will also attend) and from Five Words Alumna Tamara Miles. A huge thanks to everyone who took part this year, and to judges Afric McGlinchey and John W. Sexton for their selection of excellence.
| Identifications | by John Baylis Post (Ireland) winner |
| Milk | by Siobhan Campbell (Ireland) highly commended |
| The Safety | by Tamara Miles (U.S.A.) highly commended |
| Eve | by Siobhan Campbell (Ireland) |
| LOVELOCKS | by Jane Boxall (U.S.A.) |
| Only Connected | by Margaret McCarthy (Ireland) |
| Perspective | by Ted O’Regan (Ireland) |
| THE ZOMBIE-MAKER | by Derek Sellen (England) |
| Minor Deities | by Tamara Miles (U.S.A.) |
| A fickle god | by Margaret McCarthy (Ireland) |
| STITCHES | by Jane Boxall (U.S.A.) |
| The Buttonhole | by John D. Kelly (Northern Ireland) |
These poems will appear in Five Words Vol X, which will be launched at Ó Bhéal on Monday the 10th of April 2017, along with an award presentation and readings from available contributors. The 5th Five Words International Competition will commence at noon on Tuesday the 11th of April, 2017.
followed by the open-mic
For anyone who missed our phenomenal end-of-year event with Ian Duhig, we have all 11 of his poems on video plus 16 more from the open-mic, with huge thanks to Lovisa Cosgrave! What a night!
And a big thanks to all on the open-mic, Bernadette McCarthy, John Mee, John Nyhan, Mary O’Connell, Seamus Harrington, Ray Hanrahan, Jason Fisher, Patricia Walsh, Michal Weber, Charles Clarke, Pat Cotter, Mary Sutton, Rab Urquhart, Cédric Bikond, Michelle Delea, Janie Sparks, Patrick Loughnane, Teresa Honan and Ciarán MacArtain (with Michal).
(or via the Ó Bhéal Youtube channel).
16th October 2016
Congratulations to Marie Craven, whose brilliant film Dictionary Illustrations has won Ó Bhéal’s 4th poetry-film competition award at the IndieCork Festival of Independant Cinema & Music. Marie’s film was in competition with twenty-eight other shortlisted entries representing 15 countries, which you can read all about here. Our thanks to all the filmmakers and poets for submitting, there was a record entry of 163 films from twenty-eight countries this year. We’re already looking forward to what 2017 will bring!
Poem: Dictionary Illustrations by Sarah Sloat
Synopsis – Searching for a word, I set off browsing the dictionary illustrations.
Director: Marie Craven (Australia)
Marie Craven assembles short videos from poetry, music, voice and moving images by various artists around the world. Created via the internet, the pieces are collaborative in a way that belongs to the 21st century. Social networking and open media licensing are key to the process. Since 2014, Marie has put together many video poems, most often in association with The Poetry Storehouse and Pool creative group.
She has also collaborated for several years as a vocalist with electronic musicians globally, also via the internet. During the 1990s and early 2000s she wrote and directed short narrative and experimental films that were screened and awarded widely at international film festivals. Her earliest involvement in media was in the mid-1980s with super 8 film-making in Melbourne.
“Dictionary Illustrations was a perfect film poem because, remembering it, we can’t distinguish which parts were the words, which the images, which the sounds: each element harmonised perfectly with the others to create one discrete artwork. This effect is so rare, and so rewarding.”
grant awarded to Ó Bhéal
Ó Bhéal is thrilled to announce becoming the recipient of a generous, once-off, ‘Belonging ’16’ grant from The Community Foundation for Ireland, to host a series of eight events throughout the year, each dedicated to celebrating the centenary of The Rising, through poetry in Irish and English. The majority of these evenings will feature a number of poets who have developed work in response to 1916, celebrating poets and poetry from the time, and contemporary significance.
Poets will be mostly accompanied by one or more musicians and silent film from 1916. Additional verse written during the period will be read by local poets at each event. The schedule beneath will be updated on an ongoing basis. The Five Word Challenge is likely to be influenced by the prevailing themes and members of the public are encouraged and welcome to share related poems during the usual open-mic session.
11th January – Breakfast with Padraig
28th March (Easter Monday) – Blood on the Rose / Fuil ar an Rós
23rd May – Eastrogen Rising: A Rebel Cabaret
18th July – Our Proclamation
22nd August – 1916 Women the World Over
10th October – The Memory of the Present
7th November – Rising to the Rising (bonus event)
25th November – Winter Warmer Festival poets reading centenary poems
5th December – Mo Pheann Ag Rince: Tionscadal An Ríordánaigh (IMRAM)
This grant has also enabled Ó Bhéal to purchase its own digital video projector, so we’ll be able to return the temporary projector on loan, generously provided by the Cork Film Centre.
Our congratulations to John W. Sexton, winner of the 3rd Five Words competition, for his poem The Dancehall on the Summit of the Bloodiest Head of the Twenty Six Headed Giant. John will be the guest poet at Ó Bhéal’s 9th anniversary event on April 11th. Our congratulations also to all of the shortlisted entrants, and for highly commended entries from Beth Somerford and Janet Lees. Thanks to everyone who took part this year, and to judges Marie Coveney and Colm Scully for their careful and considered selection.
| The Dancehall on the Summit of the Bloodiest Head of the Twenty Six Headed Giant | by John W. Sexton (Ireland) winner |
| Tuesday on a Fulcrum | by Beth Somerford (England) highly commended |
| Commuter | by Janet Lees (England) highly commended |
| The Night of the Nightjar | by Mary Anne Smith (England) |
| Tribes | by Pam Szadowski (England) |
| An awful hush | by Jenny Pollak (Australia) |
|
Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Fire Monkey |
by Tamara Miles (U.S.A.) |
|
An unread novella in a charity shop |
by Janet Lees (England) |
| Igloo | by Shirley Bell (England) |
| Ragwort | by Derek Sellen (England) |
| A Coin in the Soft Machine | by John W. Sexton (Ireland) |
| Sky, an Open Window | by Tamara Miles (U.S.A.) |
These poems will appear in Five Words Vol IX, which will be launched at Ó Bhéal on Monday the 11th of April 2016, along with an award presentation and readings from available contributors. The 4th Five Words International Competition will commence at noon on Tuesday the 12th of April, 2016.
at Ó Bhéal
– How can Poetry-Films widen the intersection shared by captive literature and film audiences?
It’s perhaps too early yet to tell, but there’s a strong indication that punters have been arriving earlier since Ó Bhéal invited the poetry-film muse of audio-visual word dimensions into its weekly event: a high-quality, discretely mounted … (dervish whirl now) … DV projector and ceiling screen (the screen in the image appears quite large in reality). Which means, that beyond opening the programme to an array of previously inaccessible poetry-based multimedia works, and since Ó Bhéal’s first film-with-live-poetry event was held on January 11th (Breakfast with Padraig), we’re now confident that we’re suitably able to present poets who concentrate in the ekphrastic and/or concrete realms (we have confirmed readings with poets who excel in both of these genres for later in 2016).
Ó Bhéal’s by now buRSTing! archive of poetry films, steadily growing since 2010, includes over 300 poetry films ranging from thirty seconds to ten minutes in length, and these are being screened in random from 8.30pm, every Monday played on reduced volume as people arrive. They run for an hour, until the usual proceedings commence, at 9.30pm. A single poetry film is also highlighted on the night to start off the open-mic section, the final part of the event. These include all shortlisted films entered into the annual Ó Bhéal/IndieCork International Poetry-Film Competition.
Are there any enthusiasts, entities or fans out there we wonder, who would consider sponsoring the annual Ó Bhéal poetry-film award? We’re seeking to implement a single cash prize for the winner of Best International Poetry-Film, presented at the IndieCork awards ceremony to accompany the physical award. This will attract more entries and further validate Ireland’s first such accolade. The rapidly growing genre is gradually taking hold locally too, with more and more regional entries arriving to compete each year with the world’s leading innovators in the dance of film and word. One of the two 2015 competition judges: local filmmaker Padraig Trehy {Shem the Penman Sings Again (2015); Seamus Murphy: A Quiet Revolution (2014-)}, has been having his film students translate poems into poetry-films at the Crawford College of Art and Design. Poetry and Film? It’s a truly remarkable combination of forces. When it works, it is something to behold. With two multilayered art forms working their magic in rhythm, it does seem like anything’s possible.
19th October 2014
Our congratulations go to Marleen van der Werf whose beautiful film Wadland, a breathtaking portrayal of sea-life found in tidal areas, is this year’s poetry-film competition winner at the IndieCork Festival of Independant Cinema. Marleen’s film was under strong competition from the other thirty shortlisted entries, which you can see here. This year the films were screened in the main Firkin Crane theatre on Shandon where the huge screen and cultural location made it the perfect venue. Thanks also to the participating filmmakers and poets who travelled from afar for the screenings: Svitlana Reinish (Ukraine), Silvie Wolff (Netherlands) and Kevin Barrington (Dublin). We’re already looking forward to next year!
Poem: Wadland by Marleen van der Werf
Synopsis – Wadland is a poetic wildlife documentary about the life in the sand of a tidal plain, and the search for a lost childhood memory.
Director: Marleen van der Werf (Netherlands)
After finishing her Masters in Biology and Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam, Marleen van der Werf specialized in filming nature.
“A sensitive and poignant study of an ecosystem by a filmmaker whose knowledge and appreciation of the subject matter shines in each finely crafted shot.” – Stephen O’Riordan
“Wadland invites us into a liminal landscape, to experience that intimate place where sea meets sand, where the strength and fragility of living is inhabited and washed away in tidal cycles. The imagery, beautifully captured is poetic in it’s own right, while the poem is heart felt and intelligent. Wadland is a true marriage of poetry and film.” – Rosie O’Regan
“Wadland comes pretty close to being a perfect poetry film.” – Rab Urqhart
“Exploring the metaphor of tidal-land sea-life as symbolic of our own lives, is both frightening and enlightening, and this delicate subject matter has been treated beautifully here. The balance between poem, image and music in Wadland is terrific and absolutely captivating. It does the best of what both poetry and film can do – it takes you somewhere new, within yourself.” – Paul Casey
Our congratulations go to Don Nixon, winner of this inaugural five words competition for his poem, Fado in a Lisbon Bar. And congratulations to all the shortlisted entrants, and for highly commended contributions from Afric McGlinchey and Janet Lees.
Old Maps and Books by Don Nixon (England)
Fado in a Lisbon Bar by Don Nixon (England) winner
Gipsy Girl by Eithne Reynolds (Ireland)
The Magician’s Hat by Linda Mills (USA)
Matinée Idol by Richard Hawtree (Ireland)
Postcard by Joy Howard (England)
A boy of six thousand parts by Janet Lees (England) highly commended
Palimpsest by Janet Lees (England)
Frozen moment by Afric McGlinchey (Ireland) highly commended
Life on Mars by Colm Scully (Ireland)
The Choice by Tom Dredge (Ireland)
At the Banquet by Máire Wren (Ireland)
These poems will appear in Five Words vol VII, to be launched at Ó Bhéal on Monday the 14th of April 2014, along with an award presentation and readings from available contributors.
Oh what live jazz and poetry can create – our 6th jazz-poetry night in October saw Dimitra Xidous team up with musicians Gary Baus, Jack O’Rourke, Mo O’Connor and Michael O’Callaghan. So we won’t harp on about the magic when the videos (filmed by Stephen O’Riordan) of both the main set and the open-mic, are right here.
Each Tuesday around midday (GMT), from the 16th of April 2013, five words are posted at this link. Entrants have one week to compose and submit one (or more) poem(s): poems that must include all five words.
At noon next Tuesday, these words will no longer be eligible, and replaced with five new words. The competition will run for a total of forty weeks, until the last week of January 2014. One winner will win 500 euro and a reading.
For this week’s words, submissions and guidelines click here.
