Bringing The Funny Five Lined Poem Home
In Limerick there once was a poem,
Of its origin very little was known
And this satirical verse
That’s both amusing and terse
In August we’ll be bringing it home.
Limerick isn’t often remarked upon for its way with rhymes but the famous funny five line limerick is synonymously associated with the city and region. To celebrate our long history linked with this wide reaching verse we are holding our annual festival of limericks this August. The ‘Bring Your Limericks to Limerick Competition’ 2018 takes place Saturday 25th August in Dolans Music Venue, Dock Road, Limerick, Ireland. Up for grabs is the chance to become this year’s champion limerick writer and walk away with a cheque for €500, not bad for a five line poem.
The Bring Your limericks to Limerick weekend started in 2006 with the vision of the Limerick Writers Centre. Since then it has gained momentum both within Limerick and with limerick poetry enthusiasts from around the world.
The weekend of events provides an ideal time for poetry enthusiasts, artists and spoken word lovers to come together. Festival Director, Lisa Gibbons explains why the limerick form is so compelling, “We are always surprised by the amount entries to the competition that we get from outside of Ireland. The simplicity of the verse has made it ‘the People’s Poetry”. At its core lies humour and a sense of the absurd. This and the playful subversiveness of the limerick combine to make it an ideal vehicle for parody and mockery of modern society”, she said.
The main event is the competition taking place on August 25th where all of the finalists will take to the stage to read their final limerick submission. Over three days there will be performances and workshops to celebrate poetry and its relationship to the performing arts. Highlights of the weekend include a bus tour of The Maigue Poets country on the 24th, a performance by UK punk poet Attila the Stockbroker fresh from Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a workshop by sound healer and poet Lucia Sheehan, the competition finale where the winner will win a whopping €500 on the 25th and a Poetry and Song performance at the Hunt Museum with local poets and classical singers on the 26th August.
Submissions are open for all who can think up a topical five lined limerick. Popular topics we have seen from this years submission so far include Brexit, Trump, the referemdum and many with a political twist. We accept both written, audio and video recorded poems as long as the quality of the audio and video is of a high standard. All finalists must be present on the night of the competition to read their limerick.
We have launched a weekend celebration. To see what’s happening visit our website: https://limericksfest.wixsite.com/limerickliteraryfest
Entries are now been taken for the competition and local, national and international wordsmiths are encouraged to take part. You can enter on-line at https://limericksfest.wixsite.com/limerickliteraryfest or email [email protected]
Follow our Facebook page for up to date news on events or tweet us your limerick here.
Submissions are open for all HeadStuff poetry categories, including Poem of The Week (Every Friday), Unbound (longer sequence of poems from a single poet), and New Voices (submissions from poets under the age of 30.) We accept both written, audio and video recorded poems as long as the quality of the audio and video is of a high standard.
Please see our Submissions page for more information.
