“We began before words, and we will end beyond them. It sometimes seems to me that our days are poisoned with too many words. Words said and not meant. Words said and meant. Words divorced from feeling. Wounding words. Words that conceal. Words that reduce. Dead words…” ~ Ben Okri, Beyond Words from A Way of Being Free
Poets deal with words. We are wordsmiths. Yet sometimes words fail us. Be it finding it difficult to string the words to express your thoughts or emotions. Or be it choosing the wrong words that land you in trouble. Miscommunication. Some of us, have become too comfortable with the written word that we no longer know how to verbalise. Yet, ultimately all we have, whether it’s our vocation or just mundane living, we need words.
This edition aims to explore our relation to words. Inspired by the Ben Okri quote above, poets and general writers are invited to submit poems and essays about our relationship to words.
Print quarterly number seven is themed:
WORDS
These poems must go beyond “just expressing yourself”. The best poems will interpret this theme/title in an interesting, unique, left-field way. The poems published will avoid the obvious and mundane.
Your poems may be about being in love, or have a political slant or even be about darkness or be inspirational. The best poems will play with form – stanza, rhyme, syntax, aesthetic, language, subject – and also language and languages. The best poems will challenge, dazzle, move, inspire the reader.
Deadline: 15 August 2014, 11:59 pm, 24 August 2014
To submit poems, click here. Make sure to read our submission guidelines before submitting.
If you have any questions, then please comment below, or on our Facebook page or on Twitter (#Words) or send an email.