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Poetry

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Dowry
 
  
Street-map
 
  
 
Click to hear Claire reading ... 
 
Was thrilled to hear this week that Antiphon are taking 'How to put a genie back'. It has words like 'you' will suck at this' in it!
 
Thank you to the judges of the Flarestack Poets Pamphlet Competition 2012 for including 'Strawberries' in their competition anthology, http://www.flarestackpoets.co.uk/
 
It's thrilling to be part of the portraitswest project, http://www.malcolmashman.com/claire.html
 
Am totally delighted to have been asked to be the featured poet in the next edition of IMPpress magazine and to be working alongside artist Charles Burns. See here for more details: http://www.imppress.co.uk/submissions/next%20issue/page11.html
 
The very lovely editors at IMPpress magazine, The Lampeter Review, Reading Creative Arts Anthology and Domestic Cherry II must be loudly thanked for taking 'Storm damage', 'Oxford Street', 'The archivist', 'Eleven rooms', 'The Love Songs of Nowhere Place', 'In the morning', 'In my grandmother's larder' and 'Taking tea at The Savoy'.
 
 
Thank you to the judges and co-ordinators of the Cinnamon Press Poetry Competition for longlisting my pamphlet 'Dowry' and for including 'Dowry i' and 'Dowry ii', and 'Malta' in Jericho & other stories & poems to be published in September 2012. 
 
Am fab happy girl to have 'Street-map' in South 45 and to have had 'Limitless' placed in the York Open Poetry Competition. Yeeha!
 
Really happy to have my poem in the latest roundyhouse (see below for more details) and to have become a member of BlueGate Poets in Swindon and to be taking part in their LiterARTure project (http://www.bluegatepoets.co.uk/bluegate%20sample%20poems%20for%20literarture.html).
 
Another lovely publication from IMPpress is out now, featuring 'Untitled, Glamis Castle':
(http://www.imppress.co.uk/publications/e-zine/page19/index.html). Do take a look, the mix of poetry and art is wonderful.
 
STOP PRESS: I am so honoured to have been awarded First Prize in the Reading Writers' Autumn Competition on the 'Reworked Fairytale' with my poem, 'Cinderella, backwards'! Thank you so much to the organisers (ie. the wonderful JTW) and the judge, Brigid Coady (http://www.brigidcoady.com/).
 
I am thrilled to have 'Visa' published by The Flaneur http://flaneur.me.uk/10/visa-a-poem-by-claire-dyer/#respond
 
Thank you to Antiphon (http://www.antiphon.org.uk/index.php/act-three/28-act-three-poem-two) for taking 'Triptych' despite the typo! It's all corrected and beautiful now!
 
I'm delighted to have work in the first edition of IMPress.  Click here to view online:
 
 
This is a lovely book: please consider buying it!
and see coverage of the launch in the Reading Post, Wednesday 25th May 2011 and the following review by Todd Swift:
 
 
and this from Berkshire Life:
 
'This anthology is edited by poet Peter Robinson, Professor of English and American literature at the University of Reading, with illustrations by Sally Castle. It's a lovely dip into thoughts on Reading's past, present and future and full of moments of recognition - "Yes that's it!" Every subject you might expect to find in a Reading anthology is there, but for each one another 10 you'd forgotten sneak in. From the start we share the editor's surprise at the thriving poetry scene he discovered in the town that wants to be a city. The poems of each contributor are introduced in very personal prose sections. How many townies will nod in understanding when AF Harrold begins his with "I live in Reading by mistake"? Whether you're a "lucky dip" or a "start to finish" reader,Reading Poetry is full of delightful surprises.' -Berkshire Life
 
Some more good news: 'Headline' has been Highly Commended and 'Being Mrs Dalloway' has been Selected for the Ver Open Poetry Competiton 2011 and Roundyhouse magazine has agreed to take 'Beach hut summer' for their autumn edition, thank you!
 
'Slipstream' has been published in nothing like concrete, the University of Reading Creative Arts Anthology 2011.  It's a lovely book with great illustrations!
 
 
'Strada, Broad Street' was commended in the 2010/2011 York Open Poetry Competition and I had a wonderful day there listening to the other prize-winning poems and meeting some very nice people!  Thank you to the judge and organisers!!
 
'Burning the war' and 'A man with pale grey eyes' have been taken by Domestic Cherry magazine which is being published as part of The Swindon Festival of Literature.  
 
'Damage', 'Sunday Tea' and 'Quilting with his daughter' are in South 43, Yeeha!
 
I am honoured to have been asked to submit poems to Reading Poetry: An Anthology by Two Rivers Press (http://www.tworiverspress.com/index.html).
 
Thank you to Indigo Dreams for taking 'It sparks' for the Soul Feathers Anthology due to be published in February 2011 to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support.  For more information please visit: http://www.indigodreams.co.uk/#/soul-feathers/4545520025
 
I am delighted to have been shortlisted for the 2010 Cinnamon Press Poetry Award with my entry, 'In the hat I wear shopping', work from which is featured in the winner's anthology, Feeding the Cat & other stories. 
 
Thank you to the Reading Writers e-book, Another Light Raid, for taking 'A welcoming', 'Ellipsis' and 'After C. K. Williams'.  I can't wait for it to be released and raise funds for its chosen charity.  More details about this are on my Writer's Blog page. 
 
Another red letter day recently when my poem 'Tsunami afternoons' was commended in the Ware Open Poetry Competition 2010.  Thank you so much to the judge and organisers.
 
Wow!  'Cupboard love...' appeared in Orbis 151 and was subsequently voted joint 4th in the Readers' Award and 'Reprieve' has been announced as the winner of the 2010 WomenWords poetry competition and it will be published with 4 other of my poems in Sunrise at Machu Picchu launched on 14th October 2010.  The book is available on Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sunrise-Over-Machu-Picchu-Collection/dp/095116788X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1288015651&sr=1-3 and I will be reading at the Dundee Women's Festival on 5th March 2011 (www.d-v-a.org.uk/dundee-womens-festival.htm), so if you're in the area ...!
 
I am pleased that the 2010 Reading University creative arts anthology has taken my poem, 'How to measure with flowers' - thank you!
 
I love the vase I commissioned from Julie Simmonds.  It has 'Bird' etched into it and I love it because it's so totally mine! 
 
 
  
 
 
Thank you to Ragged Raven Press for including 'The cure' and 'The building of clouds' in their 12th annual poetry competition anthology in March 2010, 
 
Thank you also to the Envoi International Open Poetry Competition for naming me a runner up with 'On submitting a manuscript (sleeping in my clothes)',
 
I am thrilled to have been commended in the 2009 Owen Barfield Poetry Competition with my poem ' The Fisherman', http://www.reading.ac.uk/english/aboutus/deal-news.aspx
 
My poems, 'Bird' and 'Tinder' were commended in the Leaf Books Poetry Competition 2009 and will be included in the competition anthology.  For more details please go to http://www.leafbooks.co.uk/New/For%20Writers/Previous%20Competitions.html#Poetry2009
 
In September 2009 I was awarded First Prize in Anxiety UK's Poetry Competition and my poem 'World of one' was published in the December issue of Anxious Times.  Please see www.anxietyuk.org.uk for more details.
 
I was also delighted to be invited to take part in the Poetry Windows event in Wokingham in July and August 2009, organised by Poetry Matters.   

I have had poems published in Boomslang magazine and RU Taking the Biscuit, the University of Reading's 2009 Creative Arts Anthology.   

 
Poetry
 

Dowry

I bring with me my grandfather's apples-
brushed with newsprint, fingers
and heat - packed with the tenderness of children,
wrapped as though made from glass. I bring
with me the engine hum of wasps
and windfalls, the quiet-cold earth;
his dugout, his shelter - its walls,
its cupped, dark air still heavy with war.
I bring with me the imprint of flowers,
of lime-scented grass; his stooped back,
a Spitfire sun in his hair. I bring with me
tang and core and seed, the blush of skin,
the silent season slip -
rain that beads and gathers like harvest.
 
To be published in Jericho & other stories & poems, Cinnamon Press, September 2012.
 
Street-map
 
I am a camera-holding-god;
have gold-wind wings, aspirations
to reach the sun. Below me,
someonehas quilted parks;
 
sewn a river, moulded
brick-built worlds next
to churches and ponds,
raised palaces and carved
 
a mania of motorways. But
all I see are the flattened
tops of things; I yearn for texture,
and leaf-fall, for pavements,
 
for height. I am a camera-holding
god; shutter-click the street-map
town where I was born, capture
roads knitted to patterns vaguely
 
known; print my mother
in the drive of number five
Acacia Road, have her look up,
                                              scan the sky.
 
To be published in South 45, Spring 2012

 #backtotop