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Harry Goes to Vancouver Limerick

1/21/2020

Good Luck, Fellas

I do wish Harry, Meghan and Archie good luck, and am celebrating with the limerick below:

Prince Harry's no longer a mover;
he lives in suburban Vancouver.
His own socks he's stitching,
he cooks in the kitchen,
and is learning the joys of the Hoover.

Below are links to my Global Short Story Competition winning story, my short-listed story for the National newspaper (Abu Dhabi's annual short story competition) and a story that appeared on the Every Day Fiction site - where you can leave a comment:

http://www.inscribemedia.co.uk/assets/october-ebook.pdf

http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/short-story-a-day-for-decisiveness

https://everydayfiction.com/respecting-the-dead-by-paul-a-freeman/

Happy writing!

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Waterloo Station Sonnet Wins Competition

1/7/2020

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Waterloo Station - 1913

Every month a number of poetry sites select a winning poem and forward it to the Inter-Board Poetry Competition (IBPC). Until last month I had a couple of second and third placed poems, so I was chuffed when my sonnet grabbed first place for December.

The poem is below, followed by the judge's comment:

By Waterloo Station I sat down and thought
(on a bench not too far from the turbulent stream)
of Edwardian London’s once dominant port,
and of trains puffing by, empowered by steam.
The air was redolent of sulphur and soot,
the era of hansoms and carts would soon pass,
the populace mostly traversed upon foot,
while cars were the realm of the privileged class.
Of headgear – like toppers and bowlers and boaters –
the age of King Edward the Seventh was known;
its corseted women aspired to be voters
and seeds of a world conflagration were sown.
This city of spectral, historical shades,
no matter its present, its past never fades.

I have to be consistent in my last month of judging in that I feel the mastery of a sonnet deserves a first place in the winner’s circle. This poet has been paying attention, as this is also about travel and nostalgia. I was happy to read "By Waterloo Station" as it has all the elements that make a poem (and given the added difficulty of fixed form) an outstanding first. ... I wanted to end my stint as judging, this December, with some light. In this sonnet, we also smell the mist of the steam train, and somehow to me, it brings the tidings of the year’s end forward as inevitably (with a bit of a history lesson) we race towards the next decade. All while contemplating the past, on a bench by a "turbulent stream.” I am delighted by this poem. --Laurie Byro

Below are links to my Global Short Story Competition winning story, my short-listed story for the National newspaper (Abu Dhabi's annual short story competition) and a story that appeared on the Every Day Fiction site - where you can leave a comment:

http://www.inscribemedia.co.uk/assets/october-ebook.pdf

http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/short-story-a-day-for-decisiveness

https://everydayfiction.com/respecting-the-dead-by-paul-a-freeman/

Happy writing!

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Harry Goes to Vancouver Limerick

Waterloo Station Sonnet Wins Competition

Paul A. Freeman

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