An Interestng Poetry Competition

It isn't often these days that I discover something exciting locally that I can get involved with.

I have just discovered one such thing. For a couple of months now, I have been attending a fabulous open Art class at a local community centre, really just across the road from me in Worthing.

It has been quite inspirational to me, from a writing point of view, to attend this art class, run by a professional artist, and for modest fees open to simply drop in and do some painting or drawing.

My tactile ability is quite limited these days, but I've been doing some watercolour painting, not exactly the kind of paintings I might once want to have achieved, but simply working in these magical materials, and having a small amount of input to guide me, has been quite inspiring. A number of my poems have been published on the website of the art group, and I have just discovered that this rather wonderful local community venue is very close to where SWAG (the Sunny Worthing Arts Group) are going to host a writing competition, poetry and prose, linked with the forthcoming Queen's Jubilee.

The event is to be held on June 16, at the Heene Gallery, but the deadline for entries is February 29th. It is being organised by SWAG, a local voluntary arts group, and prose should be up to 1500 words, and poetry no longer than 40 lines. The cost per entry is just £3 , and I know from my previous experience of the Worthing Arts group that they are well worth supporting.

The theme of any entries is Jubilee, unsurprisingly, and entrants are encouraged to be creative in their interpretation of this theme. anything goes!

There will be a cabaret event at which poems will be read by those selected as winners, and full details can be obtained from enquiries at swagonline.org.

I'm certainly going to be entering, and who knows, maybe even some prose as well as poetry.

SkyBlue art classes can easily be googled, and quite a few of my poems are still to be seen on their site, if you follow the links to the poetry page.

It will be interesting for me to hopefully take part in the event itself, if I am fortunate enough to be selected to be able to read my work on the night. There isn't so much a financial reward by way of prizes, more the possibility of an invitation to read one's work. This appeals to me, and I suppose it touches upon the subject of one of my previous blogs, the idea that finding an audience is far more important than riches.