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.
[L-R] Tom Wyre, Sarah James, Martin Brown, Julie Field and Rab Urquhart
Poetry Exchange
with photos and reviews from
Cork and Coventry poets
[L-R] Martin Brown, Sarah James and Tom Wyre at the Norman Keep near Cobh
Thanks to the City Councils of Cork and Coventry, the 2013 Cork-Coventry Poetry Twinning exchange saw five poets travel from their respective twin cities to share their work. Representing Coventry were Tom Wyre, Sarah James and Martin Brown, and for Cork, Julie Field and Rab Urquhart. The Coventry poets visited for three days in July and gave readings at Ó Bhéal and at the Whitehouse in Limerick. They visited Lord Mayor Cllr. Catherine Clancy at City Hall and made daily excursions to Spike Island, the Old Head of Kinsale, Blarney Castle, Lough Gur and Cobh, while during a reciprocal three-day visit the Cork contingency gave readings at Playwrights Café in Coventry, the King’s Head in Litchfield and at the Old Crown in Birmingham, visited Lord Mayor Cllr. Gary Crookes and were interviewed live on Hillz FM Radio.
For the full review from the participants, with photos, click here.
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.
in association with IndieCork, festival of independent cinema
16th-20th October 2013
Ó Bhéal is pleased to announce its association with the inaugural IndieCork festival of independent cinema (www.indiecork.com). This is Ó Bhéal’s fourth year of screening poetry-films (or video-poems), and the first year featuring a competition.
Actor José Moreira and Director Manuel Vilarinho (Portugal)
Winner announced 2Oth Oct 2013: Congratulations goes to Manuel Vilarinho from Portugal, whose poetry-film
Poem: No País Dos Sacanas by Jorge de Sena
Synopsis – To be a crook and a half in the country of crooks? No, since everyone is, at least two.
Director: Manuel Vilarinho (Portugal)
Born in 1974, Manuel is a graduate in Tecnologia da Comunicação Audiovisual by IPP, Instituto Politecnico do Porto, in 2004. He directed several video clips for the music band, Fat Freddy during 2000 and 2003. In 2001 he won the FESTIVIDEO FILM FESTIVAL and the First Prize and Public award on OVAR VIDEO FILM FESTIVAL, with the short cut, LADROES. In 2004 he won the TAKE ONE prize at the International Video Festival of Vila de Conde, with AGUENTA, RAPAZ. During 2007 and 2011 he edited several TV programs. Manuel has worked at TVI, Independent Television in Portugal, since 2001.
Sample Studios Amphitheatre (Sullivan’s Quay, Cork)
Ó Bhéal is proud to announce it’s first Winter Warmer Festival, a weekend of poetry featuring twenty-one poets, four of whom will be performing to music.
oikos will present a live installation incorporating poetry, influenced by butoh and body-weather practices. There’s also a preview screening of Seamus Murphy’s excellent new poetry film Snake: Poetry of Afghanistan’s Women (the world première of which follows in December), as well as a closed-mic for ten local poets.
For the complete programme click here
Videos of the festival performances are available 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.
For those who missed our end of year reading with the national poet of Wales, Gillian Clarke, we have 14 poems from the evening on video for you. Gillian delighted the Ó Bhéal audience with an exemplary reading, mainly from her latest collection Ice (Carcanet, 2012), which is shortlisted for the current T.S.Eliot prize. A special Thanks to Stephen O’Riordan for capturing this footage. The videos are here.
(Videos)
Winner: Seán Dennehy (Leinster)
The sixth All-Ireland Poetry Slam Champion is Leinster poet Seán Dennehy. Congratulations! Second place went to Fergus Costello (Munster) and in third place was Peter Francis Fahy (Ulster).
A fantastic night of poetry, with 150 enthusiasts in Cyprus Avenue, three nail-biting rounds of slam ending in a photo-finish between Fergus Costello’s 118 points (out of a possible 150) to Seán Dennehy’s 119. And all this followed by an excellent reading from Billy Ramsell and a vibrant open-mic run by Rab Urquhart.
For all the videos from the night (filmed by Stephen O’Riordan) click here.
[L-R] Janet Smith, Jayne Stanton, Conor McManus and Matthew Geden
Poetry Exchange
with photos and reviews from
Cork and Coventry poets
In 2012 the Twinning exchange was broadened yet again with four new participating poets, representing Coventry: Janet Smith and Jayne Stanton, and for Cork: Conor McManus and Matthew Geden. The Coventry poets visited for four days in August, giving readings at Ó Bhéal and the Whitehouse in Limerick, and were treated to excursions to Lough Gur, Cobh, Myrtleville and the English Market, while during a reciprocal four-day visit the Cork contingency gave readings at both Night Blue Fruit in Coventry and Tamworth, and appeared on HillzFM Radio. Both parties visited their respective host cities’ lord mayors.
For the full review from the participants, with photos, click here.
October saw another fantastic jazz-poetry night at Ó Bhéal, featuring poet Raven and the Dan Walsh Trio. Even though they’d only just met, many remarked on how they seemed to have been playing together for years. To view all the videos filmed by Stephen O’Riordan, including those from the open-mic, click here.
