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Every Tuesday at 12pm (Irish time) from 12th April 2022 – 31st January 2023, five words will be posted on this competition page. Entrants will have one week to compose and submit one or more poems which include all five words given for that week.
A prize of 750 euros will be awarded to the winner, plus 500 euros for second place and 250 euros for third place. These three, if available will be invited to read at Ó Bhéal’s sixteenth anniversary (hybrid) event, on Monday the 10th of April 2023. Should winners be able to attend in person, then an additional travel fee of 100 euro plus B&B accommodation will be provided for this. The overall 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 XVI – the 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 2023.
The five words offered each week for the 10th Five Words competition (2022-23) are sourced from Ó Bhéal’s tenth year of live Monday evening Five Word Challenges (held during 2016-17). A small, varied selection of additional words are also used 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 for the week.
A modicum of poetic license is acceptable. As long as the original spelling is intact, you’re welcome to extend, pluralise or even split any word to appear across two adjacent words, even if its original meaning becomes altered.
Poems should be newly written, during this 7-day period. There is no limit to volume of entries, although each payment and submission should be made separately.
Submissions carry a 5 euro entrance fee.
Payment should be made via this paypal button before continuing.
Once payment is made, please copy your poem into the completed submission form (one poem per form), and email to
or by post (postmarked by Tuesday at latest) to:
Ó Bhéal
Five Words Poetry Competition
c/o Civic Trust House
50 Popes Quay
Cork
Ireland
For postal entries, please print out and complete the submission form, and post together with your attached poem (on which nothing other than the title and poem appear).
Email entries should only be sent via the above email address, 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 derived randomly by the audience.
Any queries should be directed to info [at] obheal.ie
Five Words Vol VII (April 2013 – April 2014)
Five Words Vol VIII (April 2014 – April 2015)
Five Words Vol IX (April 2015 – April 2016)
Five Words Vol X (April 2016 – April 2017)
Five Words Vol XI (April 2017 – April 2018)
Five Words Vol XII (April 2018 – April 2019)
Five Words Vol XIII (April 2019 – March 2020)
| Caught | by Marcella Remund (USA) 1st Place | |
| Finding Nero | by David W Evans (Jersey) 2nd Place | |
| Bleeding Kit | by Peter Arvan Manos (USA) 3rd Place | |
| …stream… | by Peter Longden (England) | |
| Small Blues | by Cindy Botha (New Zealand) | |
| Bathing Mother | by Marcella Remund (USA) | |
| A Barrow From The Marketplace | by Chris Reed (New Zealand) | |
| Lines from the lateral canthus | by Rosemary Norman (England) | |
| Sleep Lessons From Birds | by Laura Theis (UK) | |
| The Complete History of the Lyric | by Kyle Vaughn (USA) | |
| Foregone Conclusions | by Dean Gessie (Canada) | |
| With Blackbirds and Pirates | by Eoin Hegarty (Ireland) |
Caught by Marcella Remund
“Arriving at the winning order has more to do with taste than objective judgement, a matter of what seduces the eye and the ear more than what satisfies a set of criteria – and on another day, one suspects, or in a different mood, other poems might take one’s fancy. But ‘Caught’ I found irresistible on many readings. It is a beautifully achieved poem. It has a toned perfection both of voice and stanzaic muscle. The repetitive use of the imperative provides an efficient little engine to propel the poem through our world of danger and damage, resonating at times with perennial fears, elsewhere suggesting recent circumstances. And then, almost unnoticed, ‘forget’ mutates into ‘forgotten’. How smart is that! Never I suspect has ‘silk’, that last word, been used in the context of such forlorn constraint.”
Finding Nero by David W Evans
“By contrast, ‘Finding Nero’ is a poem of exuberant excess, freewheeling through that infamous life while giving its outsize subject a contemporary speaking voice, one we overhear in all its delusional self-obsession — in its petulance, pettiness, cruelty, in its murderous insouciance. At the same time, this high-flying, often comical monologue is always tethered and secured by demotic phrasing and grounding detail — ‘perfection mixed with god-dust’, ‘they’re big on myth these punters’, ‘pool-eyed Narcissus’. Is the maniacal narcissism, I wonder, specifically pertinent in our current world? “
Bleeding Kit by Peter Arvan Manos
“I was immediately mesmerized by ‘Bleeding Kit’ – very much a sad gloss on our age. It’s a noisy poem in the best sense – with words and sounds clashing and ricochetting: ‘quids’ against ‘quid-pro-quos ‘, ‘blunders’ into ‘blunderbusses’, ‘flintlocks’ and ‘bump stocks’, culminating with the off-rhyme closure of ‘buzzwords’ and ‘buzzards’. Executed high-tempo as a single sentence, the effect is percussive and abrasive and in keeping, both in sound and image, with its disturbing subject-matter.”
| A Rook Longs For A Badger | by Sinéad McClure (Ireland) 1st Place | |
| The Chagallisation of Joan | by Jill Munro (England) 2nd Place | |
| what you meant when you promised we’d go to the circus |
by Laura Theis (UK) 3rd Place | |
| Held Back | by Sinéad McClure (Ireland) | |
| Both Ends | by Tamara Miles (USA) | |
| In His Jacket Pocket | by Jane Salmons (England) | |
| Crossing | by Eóin Condon (Ireland) | |
| Lightfastness | by David Evans (Jersey) | |
| Girl Missing | by Jane Salmons (England) | |
| Else | by Tamara Miles (USA) | |
| Inferred and Implied | by Glen Wilson (Northern Ireland) | |
| Night Flight | by Sarah Salway (UK) |
A rook longs for a badger by Sinéad McClure
“From the nearly 800 entries, I created a long-list of about 100 poems. All fine pieces. All submitted within a week of their crafting. I wanted poems which gave no hint of their genesis, no glimmer of the short time-frame they were conceived in, or of the five words that prompted them. Poems that really were poetry. About fifty entries fitted that description. They all deserved to be shortlisted. Many could have won. But I chose ‘A Rook longs for a badger’ because the poem so neatly, so lyrically addresses my politics. They are the only politics I believe we need to be exploring now. It is ever shocking to me how human-centric we are. How little nature exists in our collective thinking—even the thinking of poets. For years she’s been a sideline in the competitions I’ve judged; so few writers have given her even a glimmer of regard. Here’s a poet who isn’t just writing about nature, she’s thinking as the creatures do. This type of thinking is the moral task of our times. But we won’t get there by being lectured; we need to be seduced. How beautifully A rook longs for a badger calls come hither.”
The Chagallisation of Joan by Jill Munro
“Many quirky delights returned me over and again to The Chagallisation of Joan. Many of its lines don’t quite make sense in the same way that Chagall’s images reveal an other, altered reality, which doesn’t quite make sense, but surely improves our lives. The poem leaves me standing before a stained-glass image, taken into its vibrancy to become ‘part of this glassy patchwork, to be awash in a multi-coloured quilt’. I was reminded of once standing in St Carthage’s Cathedral in Lismore, looking up at the Burne-Jones window-glass, and being similarly transformed. The liminal metamorphosis that artworks can engender is beautifully, memorably captured here.
what you meant when you promised we’d go to the circus by Laura Theis
“I always feel a judge’s final winners are ultimately only personal choice. Any of the final twenty poems in my shortlist were well enough crafted to win the competition. But the ones I picked were the poems that resonated most with me. How well I recognize the territory of disappointed romance in what you meant when you promised we’d go to the circus. But what I love is the unique way this universal experience is portrayed. Failed love tends to look the same in poems, but this meander through circus metaphor addresses the pain of heartbreak, and provides leaps of imagination which transform the hurt and gild it with significance.
| Betty Fox is Skipping | by Derek Sellen (England) winner |
| Evolution | by Cliona O’Connell (Ireland) highly commended |
| Automaton | by Rosemary Norman (England) highly commended |
| Father’s Day | by Janice Bethany (USA) |
| Wise and Luminous | by Ada Volynska (Ukraine) |
| Smoke Flares, Pyro Prayers | by Lucy Holme (Ireland) |
| The Boat Crane | by Sharon Phillips (England) |
| 6am. River. Girl. | by Fiona Ritchie Walker (England/Scotland) |
|
To Paint Death as The Mountain Pine Beetle |
by Michele Ring (France) |
|
Bottled Lines, Excellent Spirits |
by Ada Volynska (Ukraine) |
|
A Small Bee Came to Rest Upon My Hand |
by Margaret McCarthy (Ireland) |
| La Rue des Touettes | by David W Evans (Jersey) |
| Monolith | by Mary Anne Smith (England) winner |
| The Idea of Snow | by by Jenny Pollak (Australia) highly commended |
| My grandmother goes to the temple |
by Sophia Li (USA) highly commended |
| The Lyric Impulse | by Steve Xerri (England) highly commended |
| Omens | by Joan Gooding (England) |
| Detachment | by Geraldine McCarthy (Ireland) |
| Peckham Flaneur | by Giles Constable (England) |
| La Llorona / Weeping Woman |
by Derek Sellen (England) |
| What you woke to | by Steve Xerri (England) |
| Karst Landscape | by Gillian Laker (England) |
| Vardo | by Jill Munro (England) |
| Nexus | by Tamara Miles (USA) |
| Ptarmigan | by Jill Munro (England) winner | |
| Among Starlings | by Margaret McCarthy (Ireland) highly commended | |
| A Dream of my Dead Grandmother | ||
| in the Modern Art Museum | by Derek Sellen (England) highly commended | |
| Disciplining the Modern Satyr | by Mary-Jane Holmes (England) | |
| Nothing To See | by Giles Constable (England) | |
| How We Are | by Ted O’Regan (Ireland) | |
| Writing for the Ó Bhéal | ||
| Open-Mic | by Jim Crickard (Ireland) | |
| Amber | by Ted O’Regan (Ireland) | |
| Reindeer Moss | by Tamara Miles (U.S.A.) | |
| Every Sunday Ever | by Kirsten Irving (England) | |
| Centenary | by Ted O’Regan (Ireland) | |
| My Mother’s Birthplace | by Tamara Miles (U.S.A.) | |
| 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) |
| 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 (formerly Gantt) (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 (formerly Gantt) (U.S.A.) |
| Survivor | by Derek Sellen (England) winner |
| Sonnet in B Major | by Afric McGlinchey (Ireland) highly commended |
| Home Cooking | by Adannaya Igwe (UK) highly commended |
| Saved | by Liz Smith (England) |
| Breakfast | by Sheena Blackhall (Scotland) |
| At the Hair Clinic | by Derek Sellen (England) |
| The Snooze Button | by Margaret Mc Carthy (Ireland) |
| The Sectioning | by Bernadette McCarthy (Ireland) |
| I Coin a Line | by Mary Fahy (Ireland) |
| The Stereogram | by Anthony Scott (England) |
| Black Mountain Rebel | by Tess Sheridan Adams (Ireland) |
| False North | by John W. Sexton (Ireland) |
| 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) |
by glass artist
Michael Ray
