[John Whitworth]

I have had a PM from Janice asking how exactly you enter the Light Verse Bake-off. What you do is to send your piece of Light Verse by e mail, either in the body of the email or as an attachment, to me at

jwhitworthpoetAT_SIGN_HEREtalktalk.net.

OK?

[Maryann Corbett]

John, is there a cut-off date?

[Julie Steiner]

Yes. For some of us, the Muse only drops by at the very last minute, so we need to know which minute that will be. GMT.

[Stephen Collington]

Hi John,

I hope you won't mind, but I've taken the liberty of editing your post above to modify the email link. If you use your "raw" email address on a web page, you're setting yourself up for a huge spike in spam volume.

Anyway, just in case anyone's not clear, the phrase AT_SIGN_HERE of course is to be replaced with the usual @ sign when entering John's address in your email program. (You see, I can say that here: the automated spam bots don't actually understand real English, they just copy the address and start mailing you . . . well you know the rest.)

Again, John, forgive me if this seems like an intrusion. But I thought I'd make the change right away, before too many of our electronic visitors cottoned on to you.

Steve C.

[John Whitworth]

Thank you, Stephen, I'm sure you are right. I am ashamed to say I don't know the cut-off date. I'm sure I was told, probably by Tim Murphy, but I have forgotten. Can anyone help?

[Tim Murphy]

John, you can issue your "Call for Light Verse" on the three po boards anytime, now that we've completed the translation bake-off. In "Upcoming" I'd said we'd do light verse Sept 1, so now would probably be a good time. Pick your own cut-off date, and allow yourself a few days to sift and critique your finalists.

[Roger Slater]

While you're at it, John, any words of wisdom about what you're looking for would be nice. Are children's poems okay? Limericks or shorter forms? Do you prefer serious/light with genuine emotion, or is mere fluff and wordplay in the running? Chris didn't mention until after he made his selections for the Translation bake-off that he didn't want too many sonnets, and that kind of information would be useful as we are selecting our one poem to submit to you. Please don't be inscrutable.

[John Whitworth]

I've been called many things, but inscrutable isn't one of them. Here are some winners.

The Microbe by Hilaire Belloc
Ballade of Suicide by G.K. Chesterton
I've Got a Little List by W.S. Gilbert
Jesus Found Me a Parking Space by Wendy Cope
Windows Is Shutting Down by Clive James
Lollipops of the Pomeranian Baroque by James Fenton

WOT no yanks? Well who won LAST year?

Any damn thing at all by Ogden Nash
Occupational Hazard by Sophie Hannah
Keats' Sonnet about a cat
Arizona Nature Myth by James Michie


I like rhyme and scanning but you knew that. Light verse encompasses many things

[Chris Childers]

Yes, Roger, that was too bad. Of course, I didn't realize I didn't want too many sonnets until I got them. I do have the feeling that we all see and read and write enough sonnets & I was interested in variety. I regret my lack of transparency in that matter.

Chris

[Holly Martins]

In last year's LV bake-off we were allowed to have a guess at who'd written what, which was great fun. In the recent sonnet bake-off we weren't permitted to do this. Can we have the guessing game back?