Entries are now Clósed

The shortlist of twelve poems including the overall winner will be announced by the first week of March.

The 7th Five Words Competition
opens on the 16th of April 2019

Competition Overview

Every Tuesday around noon (UTC), from the 16th of April 2019 until the 28th of January 2020, five words will be posted on this competition page. Entrants have one week to compose and submit one or more poems which include all five words given for that week.

The 2019/2020 (7th) competition will run for 41 weeks.

A prize of 500 euros is awarded to one winner, who, if available will be invited to read at Ó Bhéal’s twelfth anniversary event, on Monday the 13th of April 2020. An additional travel fee of 100 euro plus B&B accommodation will be provided for this. The winner also receives a physical award, hand-crafted by acclaimed glass artist (and poet) Michael Ray.

The shortlisted poems and winning entry will also be published in Five Words Vol XIII – the next annual anthology of five word poems, to be launched at the same event. A shortlist of twelve poems including the overall winner will be announced by the first week of March 2020.

The five words offered each week for 2018-19 are sourced from the audiences of the sixth year of (fifty) Five Word Challenges, held each Monday evening during 2012-13 (Ó Bhéal 6th year), with a selection of words added due to deletion of duplicates, colloquialisms, etc.

Entry is open to all countries. Poems cannot exceed 50 lines in length (including line breaks), and must include all five words listed during this week. A modicum of poetic license is acceptable. As long as the original spelling is intact within your syntax, you’re welcome to pluralise, join or even split the word to form two adjoining words. Poems should be newly written, during the relevant 7-day period. There is no limit quantity of entries, although each payment and submission will need to be made separately. Entries to be sent no later that 12pm on Tuesday.

Submissions carry a 5 euro entrance fee.

Payment should be made via this paypal button before continuing.

For postal entries, please print out and complete the submission form, and post together with your attached poem (in which nothing other than the title and poem appear). As is usual practice, all entries are logged and numbered by our allocated filter programmers so that judges cannot see the names of the entrants. Email entries should be sent via the email address given above, not via the submissions [at] obheal [dot] ie email link on the home page, which is only for non-competition entries, written and performed live during each Monday evening event – from words offered up in random by the audience.