Have a go at poetry and get in Southam anthology
Dr David Brough reads from his work at last year's open mic event. Picture submitted.
JUST have a go, that is the message from one of the men behind an annual poetry contest in Southam.
Dave Brough, the organiser of Southam Lions’ poetry competition, discovered his own talents after a career as a physics lecturer.
When he retired from his post teaching materials science and engineering at Liverpool John Moores University, Dr Brough’s wife challenged him to write three short stories, but the Merseyside-born writer found he was better at poetry.
Influenced by Wordsworth, Robert Frost, Rudyard Kipling and Felix Dennis as well as jazz songwriter Cole Porter and using forms such as sonnets, the former scientist writes about the theme of time and space, love, and even food, which definitely seems to get his the creative juices flowing.
He said: “Sometimes it takes a long time to write a poem but when I went down to the Bowling Green pub one evening I wrote nine in the space of one meal.”
Dr Brough moved to Southam four years ago, and helped start the Lions’ poetry competition.
The Lions’ usual work is fundraising for charities in the town and around the world, but Mr Brough explained the logic behind getting the town to reach for its rhyming dictionaries.
He said: “It helps us get to know the community. From their poems you sometimes get an idea of what their concerns are and what exercises them, and people who are really in need get to know about the Lions.”
Not only do the entries shed light on the town, they form a written record, with the best poems published in a book after an awards ceremony in which poets are invited to read from their work.
The deadline for the contest is September 21, but Dr Brough is hoping for early entries so poems can be prepared for a rigorous, and anonymous, judging process to ensure there is no bias.
There is no theme, although Dr Brough is expecting a lot of poems about the Olympics. He also stressed writers need not stick to recognised forms such as sonnets, limericks or ballads.
But after one entry last year was identified as a well-known but not very good pop song, he said poems must be the entrants’ own work.
Dr Brough said: “Just have a go. You can either take a form and adhere to it or do things spontaneously. We’ve had some lovely poetry from people who don’t adhere to any particular form.”
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Saturday 18 May 2013
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