Poetic Pride

Good morning everyone!

Hope the sun is shining wherever you are!

We’re continuing to celebrate our winning poets by sharing their poems with the world.  Today, we’re the winning poem from our East of England winner – Louise Wilson from Essex.

Enjoy!

Proud - Louise Wilson, Essex

As I approach the dark, wooden open doors,
As I hear the music start to play,
A rush of excitable nerves take my fear,
As I remember what it took to get to this day.

Hiding beneath a display of friendship,
Creating a web of lies,
Not knowing everyone was watching me fall in love,
The love in my heart shining through my eyes.

Defeating opinions and comments shared,
Telling everyone, I am in love!
My heart taken by a beautiful woman,
For once, love is enough.

So here I am today,
Walking towards you so very proud,
I am in awe as I only see your beauty,
Can't hear the music nor see the crowd.

I take your hand in mine,
How we fit so perfect, so cleverly,
By far the most perfect day in my life,
Our proud civil ceremony.

By Louise Wilson

Wickford, Essex

Dear Heart...

Over the next few days, we’ll be sharing the full collection of all the winning poems that will be published in ‘Marriott Love Poems – a collection inspired by love, weddings and romance’

Today, we’re sharing our East Midlands’ winning poem by Hayley Gait-Golding in Derbyshire.  Hope you enjoy it as much as we have…

Happy Friday!

Dear Heart - By Hayley Gait-Golding

HHH

Dear Heart,

I'd like it if you'd tell me

How you measure love.

Do you deal in ounces and quarters?

Or stroke it with kid gloves?

How do you pick who gets it

Because I'd really like a say

And why is it that some people

Get more and more each day?

Another thing I'd like to know

Is how love measures time?

Is it founded in an instant?

Then lasts a whole lifetime?

Does it grow and grow your whole life through

So I have more and more

Or is there just a set amount

You get at birth then store?

What happens if it’s stolen?

Or if I cease to love

Does it all come back untarnished?

With interest on the above.

How can I know its importance?

Do you give it certain ranks?

Could I say that’s 1st or 2nd class?

Like I do with postage stamps.

Is true love like in stories?

Like old fashioned fairy tales

Cinderella meets Prince Charming 

And only love prevails

Why is it then that nowadays?

Love sometimes takes the course

Of starting off with marriage 

But ending in divorce

Is love equal in proportions?

For families and for friends

For husbands, wives and children

Where does it ever end?

To let me know what’s going on

Lets strike a little deal

Beat slowly for the phoneys

And fast if it’s for real!

 

By Hayley Gait-Golding

Allestree, Derby

A Celebration of British Poetry Talent

Phew! It’s been a busy couple of weeks here at Marriott Love Poems HQ!  We’ve had poems galore to read, review, shortlist and then finally pass on to our esteemed judges Fiona Sampson and Matt Harvey.

Fiona and Matt really enjoyed reading all the poems and the found the judging process a real pleasure!  This is what they told us:

Fiona Sampson commented, “Thanks so much for involving me in Marriott Love Poems!  I think the poems we've read have been really attractive and very well written examples of vernacular in verse.  These are poems on a big theme by real, ordinary people and part of our nation’s vibrant community culture. What particularly marked out the poems we read was the unusually high technical standard of accomplishment. These were verses which had been properly made, with a reader in mind, unlike much writing in this - and any - tradition.”

Matt Harvey said, “It has been a pleasure to read the poems we’ve received.  I found much material that touched and delighted me and I’m overjoyed that so many people felt inspired to write a poem on the theme.”

Now has come the time to reveal our winning and runner up poets – all of whom will be published in our upcoming book ‘Marriott Love Poems – a collection inspired by love, weddings and romance’, to be released next week.

Before we reveal the poets that have been selected, we’d just like to say a HUGE heartfelt thank you to everyone who wrote and submitted poems.  As Fiona Sampson says, “Writing poetry is a difficult thing to do.  Even the most seasoned professional can feel daunted by the blank page.  No wonder Writer's Block is so notorious!”

A Big Congratulations to everyone who has been selected to be a winner or runner up!

The 10 Winning Poets

East Midands – Hayley Gait-Golding, Derbyshire

East Eng – Louise Wilson, Essex

London – Vivien Hampshire, Ickenham

North – Mrs Denise Jones, Southport

Scotland –Jane Graham, Glasgow

South East – CJ Munn, Kent

South West – Mrs. Heather Grange, Plymouth

Wales – Catherine Smith, Bridgend

West Midlands –Tracy Davidson, Warwickshire

Yorkshire – Emma Salmon, Leeds

The 10 Runner Up Poets

East Midlands – Mrs. Pauline Halliwell, Northampton

East Eng – Andrea Porter, Cambridgeshire

London – Helen Marsh, Battersea

North – James Coghlan, Leigh

Scotland – Martin Richmond, Falkirk

South East – Diana Barsham, West Sussex

South West – Rob Burton, Plymouth

Wales – Craig Astley, Swansea

West Midlands – Nick Williams, Wolverhampton

Yorkshire – Mrs. Dawn More, York

We will be doing another blog post to share the winning poems soon…so remember to keep visiting the blog!

Thank you!

A big heartfelt thank you to everyone who has written and submitted a poem (or more than one!) into our search! Poems are now being considered by our judges Matt Harvey and Fiona Sampson and will be announced very soon...

Watch this space!

Pen-ultimate Day!

Well it’s the penultimate day of the Marriott Love Poems search end and it’s been another flat out busy day for the team here collecting and saving every single poem that’s been sent in to us.  The poems have been literally flying in via our website and the post and we can just about keep up! 

We’ve loved reading each and every poem – they have brought us joy, laughter, tears even!  Now comes the extremely hard task of short-listing (which seems an impossible task judging by the quality of poems that have been coming in) and ultimately picking the lucky poets to publish in our book…

We’d like to take this early opportunity to thanks everyone for taking the time and effort to write or dig out recently written poems and send them into us.  If only we could pick you all!

Worry not, we shall still be sharing some of our favourites here on the blog!

Some of the last minute postal poems we've received today!

Tuesday Treat Time

Well we can hardly believe it ourselves but the Marriott Love Poems search has almost come to an end!  The time has whizzed past at an alarming speed and we have received some beautiful, thought-provoking and also funny poems that have given us lots of pleasure to read.  Poems have been flooding in through our website marriottlovepoems.com as well as through the post and we’re touched that so many of you have felt inspired to put pen to paper! 

From Thursday will come the hard part – for our judging panel to deliberate and make their final decisions on the winning poets.

The good news is that you still have a couple of days to write a poem and send it in to us if you haven’t already, or even if you have why not send another one in?  If you’re not feeling particularly poetic and don’t fancy writing a whole poem, then write a love twoem (see our blog post on entitled Twoems for more details).

For a quick dose of poetic inspiration, today we want to share a truly bilingual love poem written and posted in by Southampton’s Graeme Sandford, which we really rather enjoyed!

Remember, poetry submissions must be in by Thursday 31^st March to be considered.  Submit yours at www.marriottlovepoems.com.

Tripping Over The Language Barrier - By Graeme Sandford, Southampton

Friday Funnies - no.1

Happy Friday everyone! Not only is it Friday, but the sun is shining too (at least it is where we are!)

To celebrate, we’d like to share the first of our ‘Friday Funnies’ – a limerick submitted by Rob Kelly that did make us giggle!

Limerick – by Rob Kelly, Somerset

As I entered the reception at Marriott

With my beautiful girlfriend Harriet

She said wow this is nice

Do they do Curry and Rice

I said "no", but I think I'll marry it.

What do you make of it? Think you can do better?  Tweet us www.twitter.com/MarriottPoetry or submit yours at www.marriottlovepoems.com!