Poetry is a strange form of entertainment. It is mainly considered to be the tool of lovelorn, teenage girls or the literary high-brow. However, Stephen Fry believes that we can all enjoy crafting poetry as long as we take it seriously.
Of course, this means having fun, something we at activagers think is very important. The good news is that Fry tells us not to work out what a poet is actually saying, but to take the time to learn a few tools and rules that make writing poetry easier and more rewarding.
We’ve read and reviewed The Ode Less Travelled and thought that we should challenge our members to write a poem about midlife. There are three categories: limerick, haiku and ‘freeform’ (any length, any style) and all the poems need to refer to midlife in some way.
The top prize for the best entry is £100 in Amazon vouchers and the best poems in each category will receive a copy of The Ode Less Travelled. You need to be a member of activagers, the cosmopolitan social network for the 40 to 65 generation to enter and the deadline for entries is the 31st of May 2011.
Join activagers now and take part in the fun. Joining and ALL the services on activagers are free. Sign up with this link or in seconds via Twitter.
What sort of things are people writing poems about?
The poems just need to explore the different aspects of middle age. We all grumble about a few grey hairs and wrinkles but most people are actually happier in middle age than when they are in their teens. This gives us a fascinating trade off between wanting to stay young and the benefits of experience.
A limerick gives a chance for some fun, haiku for something simple, yet pertinent and the ‘freeform’ gives you free reign. So far there have been a roughly equal number of entries in each category.
You can check out some of the entries in the activagers poetry group here or you can take a look at the full details of the competition here.
The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry
Many of us were scared off poetry at school by suffering long classes trying to work out what the poet was actually trying to tell us. Stephen Fry tackles the subject from a different perspective by looking at how much fun it is to write poetry and play around with words. He takes the hobby of poetry very seriously and goes through a number of rules and techniques, arguing that this is how you would learn to play a musical instrument so why not poetry?
The end result is a book that enthuses you to try out his exercises as it makes writing poetry both easier and more fun.
What is activagers?
We are an international social network for the over forties who want to escape the kids on Facebook, meet new friends and try some new challenges. We are free to join and ALL our services are free. However, we are not a dating site or a place for boring old farts!
This poetry competition is just one of a number of things we do to challenge and entertain our members. Of course, being a social network our true value comes from our members and the huge range of interests and discussions. We have sites in the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Portugal and even Russia and with our language tools you can mingle on the different sites even if you have very little knowledge of the language.
Join activagers, the cosmopolitan social network for the over 40’s and enter the poetry competition or make some new fun friends Joining and ALL our services are free. Sign up with this link or in seconds via Twitter.
