Category: cultchallenge2024

We started the year with a poetry challenge that would be based upon Japanese Art, and so we are ending 2024 in the same vein.

This time, it is to be based upon the beautiful work of Cult Challenge: December 2024: “Poems for Itō Jakuchū” – an 18th Century artist who produced some of the most beautiful images I’ve ever seen.

As previously, we will have a poshly produced book featuring a selection of artwork alongside the best of the poems.

To be clear:

1. 1. Write a Poem that reacts to some aspect of the work of Itō Jakuchū
   2. The Winning poets will see their work featured in a rather posh book during 2025

Rules:

1. 1. There are no length constraints
   2. You must be a Cult Member to submit your poem – sending it to competition@hedgehogpress.co.uk
   3. Send the poem by 11.59pm on the 31st of January 2025

Itō Jakuchū (born March 2, 1716, Kyōto, Japan—died Oct. 27, 1800, Kyōto) was a Japanese painter of the mid-Tokugawa period (1603–1867) who excelled in drawing flowers, fish, and birds, especially fowl, which he used to keep at his home in order to observe them closely.

The son of a greengrocer, he first studied drawing with a painter of the Kanō school (stressing Chinese subject matter and techniques). He also made copies of old Chinese masters. He developed an amazingly realistic style and added to it decorative touches that he learned in part from the works of Ogata Kōrin (1658–1716). He made a set of 30 pictures for the Shōkoku Temple, entitled “Dōshokusai-e” (coloured pictures of animals and plants), which, along with “Gunkei zu fusumae” (screen painting of fowl), are his most famous works. He later became a recluse and assumed the name Tobeian (“Bushel Monk”). It is said that those who got his paintings gave him one to (approximately two bushels) of rice in return.

Here are a selection of  the artwork that may be included in the Book…

 

“The Final Text Message”

I am so verily chuffed to say that we had some mighty fine poems responding to this challenge, and the est of them I’ve included in a wee anthology. Work came from:

1. 1. Gerald Killingworth
   2. Amanda Hill
   3. Julie De Brito
   4. Liz Kendall
   5. Nigel Kent
   6. Roger Waldron
   7. Wendy Goulstone
   8. Christopher House
   9. Philippa Ramsden
   10. Julie Leoni
   11. Miriam Moore
   12. Patricia M Osborne
   13. Phil Santus
   14. Neil Windsor

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The Challenge: The ‘Final Words’, a ‘Dying Declaration’,  the ‘Suicide Note’, perhaps the ‘Last Will and Testament’ have always a chance for any of us – although hopefully a long time from now – to have the final words on whatever the matter is that really matters and in some ways speak from beyond the grave. In fact, they could even be carved on a stone over a grave. How final is that? I thinking about this the other day as I was clearing some drawers and came across an old mobile phone from the 1990s, and remembered that when SMS / text messages arrived, how revolutionary and nice it was not to have to talk to work colleagues, you could instead just send them a message and err, they would never know that you were still in bed. (Just me?) Anyway, I also remembered (looked-up)  that initially such messages were limited to a grand 160 characters, including spaces, and this gave rise to the death of punctuation and the English language as we knew it. Probably. But this challenge isn’t meant to be morbid or a complaint, instead I wanted you to think of a final, short message that you can convey in the form of a poem that doesn’t exceed 160 characters (excluding the spaces – I won’t count them.) The Challenge then is really simple. Say something profound, pithy, bitchy or funny that you would like to leave behind, but useno more than 160 characters. To be clear:

1. 1. 1. Write a Poem that tells us your final message in 160 characters or less
      2. The poem can be of any type or style

Rules:

1. 1. 1. You must be a Cult Member to submit your poem – sending it to competition@hedgehogpress.co.uk
      2. Send the poem by 11.59pm on the 30th November 2024

The best poems/responses will be included in a wee book to be published during 2025

4/4: “PIOTR STANDS AMONG FIRE”

Deadline For Entries: 31st of October 2024 Back in January 2020, I had the rather brilliant idea (ahem) of Cult members collaborating on a poetry novella. It would take part over the course of a year, and there would be Four Chapters that told the story of Piotr and the somewhat magical, Black Violin. The first two chapters were completed, but the Third and Fourth somehow became elusive and mythical in their own right, and they – and the book itself – never materialised. All of these years later, I have decided that the time to finish The Black Violin is now, and so I am pleased to say that October’s Challenge will see the poems for the final Chapter selected, with the book destined to be released on the shortest day of the year, the 21st of December 2024, just shy of five years after we started. Some things are worth the wait (ahem.)

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Background to the Project: There will be a series of challenges that will hopefully see us build a collaborative story centred upon a mythical and magical Black Violin. The idea is that we will publish a Poetry Novella, featuring a variety of witness statements, in the form of poems. The Black Violin will end-up being published as a book of 40 poems. This is the fourth, and final part of the Challenge. The key idea of the writing is that I am asking you to write poems that work as witness reports. In many ways the core story is the least important aspect – it is more how you describe what you see rather than what it is that is happening – the writing rather than the tale. It has always fascinated me that ten people can see the same event and notice/focus on completely different details, and I am hoping that this is what will happen here – even though the details will largely be coming from your imagination. Each of the four challenges will work in the same way:

1. 1. 1. I will give you a very rough and scant-of-detail description of an event
      2. You must imagine yourself to be present, although as a witness, NOT one of those actively involved
      3. You must imagine and then write a poem of up to forty lines that gives your interpretation of what has occurred from your perspective.  These can describe everything I tell you and more, or concentrate on one minor part – you decide.
      4. You, as the witness, can be anybody or thing, you can talk about yourself if that helps too. (i.e. You could be a bird as easily as a butcher, you could be seeing the scene in a TV advert or hearing a child telling the tale in the words of a nursery rhyme.)
      5. These descriptions can be painted with a broad brush or focus on minuscule details – a description of a butterfly passing in the foreground is as valid as a chronological description of the events that were happening behind.
      6. Your forty lines may be used in many ways – a series of haiku would be as valid as a concrete poem or the redaction of a newspaper report. You decide.
      7. At the end of each of the challenges, I will choose Ten of the poems that as a group work best in describing differing perspectives of the events.

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The Story So Far: You can download the first Three Chapters, here: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE STORY SO FAR

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The Challenge 4/4: “Piotr stands among fire, surrounded by shards of broken ice, the Hunter’s Cabin no longer intact, he is unable to stop playing the Black Violin, rainbow spells wafting from a blur of fingers, wood crackling as the trees of the forest turn to take in the spectacle. The trees aren’t alone. Woodland creatures:  bears, wolves, boar, mink and stoat, swarm slowly inwards toward him in concentric bands of refracted colour. Old animosities forgotten in the moment. The beating of his fingers on the fretboard draws them in, takes them over. Piotr sees them unseeing, and slowly walks into and through their massed ranks. Leading them, deeper into the forest and then, marching to his rhythm, into the country beyond.” Describe the scene, or part of it, in the form of a poem of forty lines or less. Email it to: competition@hedgehogpress.co.uk

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The Prize:

1. 1. The Forty poems chosen for The Black Violin will all appear in a book to be published on the shortest day of the year, the Winter Solstice – 21st of December 2024
   2. Everybody appearing in it will receive author copies
   3. The Final Challenge / Chapter will be released in October 2024

“Taped From Somebody’s Brother”

I’m pleased to say that the Taped From Somebody’s Brother Anthology, will include fine work from:

1. 1. 1. Neil Windsor
      2. Wendy Goulstone
      3. GP Hyde
      4. Traci Hugelmaier
      5. Gifford Savage
      6. Carmella de Mayer
      7. Miriam Moore
      8. Phil Santus
      9. Sharron Green
      10. Heather Moulson
      11. Paul Ings
      12. Olivia Todd
      13. Tina MacNaughton
      14. Mick Yates
      15. Julie Anne Gilligan
      16. Amanda Hill
      17. Mandy Willis
      18. Kate Copeland

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The Challenge: Back in the mists of time, before the interweb and all of this streaming malarkey, it was really rather difficult to find new music that wasn’t played on Top of the Pops. One of the joys of life then, was finding a seam of music that you could mine and most importantly of all, get ‘taped’ and then spend time sat-sitting and listening to treasure-like-musical-wonders on your Walkman. Well, until the batteries ran out. Needless to say, we all created networks of friends of friends and if home taping was killing music, it didn’t feel like it. In fact most of the music I borrowed then, I am still paying to buy and listen to now, so perhaps it wasn’t such a bad thing. Of course there were downsides, sometimes you never knew who the songs were by and other times quality control wasn’t the best. In fact, an ex girlfriend of mine taped me Sergeant Pepper’s from her dad’s well-played original vinyl. It was in mono, so only came out of the left headphone, but I loved it and played it to death. In fact it was only years later when I had spent ages learning to play George Harrison’s eight minute sitar solo in Within You Without You that I realised that it wasn’t actually that long, and she just hadn’t noticed that the record had stuck in one place, and the final flourish that I was assuming was some kind of grunge Stylophone explosion of creativity, was in fact her knocking the needle so that the song moved on. In truth, the ‘proper’ version still doesn’t sound right to me even now. But getting a tape of a band you hadn’t heard before was magic, and it has always struck me that music and poetry work, and are shared, in much the same ways, and so that is the basis of this challenge. I would like you to introduce a favourite, and perhaps obscure, poet, artist, musician, song, poem or painting to the world, as a recommendation, in the form of a poem. I want you to write a poem that gives somebody a piece of gold that you think will stay with them forever. The Challenge then is really simple. Recomend a piece of art in the form of a poem. There are no restrictions on the shape, length, form or degree of sugar coating required. I’ll leave that up to you. To be clear:

1. 1. 1. Write a Poem that tells us about a favourite poem, song, artwork or their creators
      2. The subject of the poem, is the title of your poem
      3. The poem can be of any type or style
      4. There are no length constraints

Rules:

1. 1. 1. There are no length constraints
      2. You must be a Cult Member to submit your poem – sending it to competition@hedgehogpress.co.uk
      3. Send the poem by 11.59pm on the 31st October 2024

The best poems/responses will be included in a wee book to be published during 2025

3/4: “PIOTR FINDS THE HOUSE OF BROKEN ICE”

Deadline For Entries: 31st of July 2024 Back in January 2020, I had the rather brilliant idea (ahem) of Cult members collaborating on a poetry novella. It would take part over the course of a year, and there would be Four Chapters that told the story of Piotr and the somewhat magical, Black Violin. The first two chapters were completed, but the Third and Fourth somehow became elusive and mythical in their own right, and they – and the book itself – never materialised. All of these years later, I have decided that the time to finish The Black Violin is now, and so I am pleased to say that July’s Challenge will see Ten Poems selected to tell the tale of the Third Chapter of Piotr’s folk tale. October’s Challenge will see the poems for the final Chapter selected, with the book destined to be released on the shortest day of the year, the 21st of December 2024, just shy of five years after we started. Some things are worth the wait (ahem.)

---

Background to the Project: There will be a series of challenges that will hopefully see us build a collaborative story centred upon a mythical and magical Black Violin. The idea is that we will publish a Poetry Novella, featuring a variety of witness statements, in the form of poems. The Black Violin will end-up being published as a book of 40 poems. This is the third part of the Challenge. The key idea of the writing is that I am asking you to write poems that work as witness reports. In many ways the core story is the least important aspect – it is more how you describe what you see rather than what it is that is happening – the writing rather than the tale. It has always fascinated me that ten people can see the same event and notice/focus on completely different details, and I am hoping that this is what will happen here – even though the details will largely be coming from your imagination. Each of the four challenges will work in the same way:

1. 1. 1. I will give you a very rough and scant-of-detail description of an event
      2. You must imagine yourself to be present, although as a witness, NOT one of those actively involved
      3. You must imagine and then write a poem of up to forty lines that gives your interpretation of what has occurred from your perspective.  These can describe everything I tell you and more, or concentrate on one minor part – you decide.
      4. You, as the witness, can be anybody or thing, you can talk about yourself if that helps too. (i.e. You could be a bird as easily as a butcher, you could be seeing the scene in a TV advert or hearing a child telling the tale in the words of a nursery rhyme.)
      5. These descriptions can be painted with a broad brush or focus on minuscule details – a description of a butterfly passing in the foreground is as valid as a chronological description of the events that were happening behind.
      6. Your forty lines may be used in many ways – a series of haiku would be as valid as a concrete poem or the redaction of a newspaper report. You decide.
      7. At the end of each of the challenges, I will choose Ten of the poems that as a group work best in describing differing perspectives of the events.

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The Story So Far: You can download the first two chapters, The Story so far, here: 978-1-913499-66-2_txt

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The Challenge 3/4: “Piotr moves quickly through the forest, scared of the distant sounds of waking wolves behind him. He knows that they will track him, he may not be so lucky again. Ahead he sees a hunters cabin, and is relieved that the door is open. Inside he wraps himself warm in the pelts of dead animals, and starts to play the Black Violin. Fire leaps from his fingers, rainbow colours explode, enfold him and the shattered ice walls of the cabin are unveiled as for miles around it can be seen, as it explodes into a vibrant mirrorball in the darkness of the forest. He realises that he will be noticed, but the Black Violin won’t let his fingers stop their dancing.” Describe the scene, or part of it, in the form of a poem of forty lines or less. Email it to: competition@hedgehogpress.co.uk

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The Prize:

1. 1. The Forty poems chosen for The Black Violin will all appear in a book to be published on the shortest day of the year, the Winter Solstice – 21st of December 2024
   2. Everybody appearing in it will receive author copies
   3. The Final Challenge / Chapter will be released in October 2024

I am so verily pleased to be able to announce that the poets with work to be included in out Little Black Book of Summer Poems, are:

1. 1. 1. Miriam Otto
      2. Rosie Barrett
      3. Fiona Halliday
      4. Jennifer Schneider
      5. GP Hyde
      6. Catherine Heighway
      7. Felice Hardy
      8. Patricia M Osborne
      9. Sharron Green
      10. Eileen Carney Hulme
      11. Ceinwen E Cariad Haydon
      12. Rebecca Lacey
      13. Kate Young
      14. Paul Ings
      15. Nigel Kent
      16. Kate Copeland
      17. Tina Cathleen MacNaughton
      18. Oz Hardwick
      19. Liz Kendall
      20. Isabel Miles
      21. Mick Yates

The book itself will be officially released on the 21st of July 2024 and will be gorgeously cute.

So many thanks to all who submitted and congratulations to those who made it this time – tis much appreciated as ever.

When I was young and stupid, I disappeared with an Interrail ticket, some teabags, a backpack and a jar of Marmite for Europe, and generally got lost for a few weeks.

As I write this, I still don’t genuinely know whether I have been to Belgium or not.

What I do remember though, was wandering around somewhere in Germany, perhaps Hamburg or maybe the prettier Hannover, I forget, where there were a lot of ad-hoc and spontaneous art exhibitions of ‘War Stolen’ art – basically, I think the idea was that they were trying to find the original owners of what were seen as minor yet stolen paintings.

One I wandered around was by a poet and artist called Josef Čapek, who definitely struck a chord with me, but who in the forty-odd years since, to my shame, I have never come across again.

Anyway, recently I finally did think to Google him, and found out a lot more, and the parallels with recent days were quite chilling – him being a critic of the Nazis, and ultimately killed because of this.

But his art endures, and I thought it would be good for him to be the next in our Postcards From The Hedge series, so June’s Challenge is to ponder his artwork and write a poem in response.

There will be the usual eBook Anthology for the Shortlisted poems, and a collection of Postcards with the art of Josef being backed by the selected poems.

i.e. There are to be two stages to the prize for this Challenge:

• • • The Shortlisted Poems will be included in a wee eBook, and
    • A selection of ‘Winning’ poems will be featured in a set of postcards which will appear, hopefully, by September 2024.

To be clear:

1. 1. Write a Poem that reacts to some aspect of the work of Josef Čapek
   2. The Winning poets will see their work featured in  set of postcards to be ‘published’ in 2024
   3. There will additionally be an eBook edition featuring the Shortlisted poems

Rules:

1. 1. There are no length constraints
   2. You must be a Cult Member to submit your poem – sending it to competition@hedgehogpress.co.uk
   3. Send the poem by 11.59pm on the 30th of June 2024

Here are a selection of Josef Čapek’s artworks that may be included in the eBook / set of postcards:

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About Josef Čapek

Josef Čapek (Czech pronunciation: [ˈjozɛf ˈtʃapɛk]; 23 March 1887 – April 1945) was a Czech artist who was best known as a painter, but who was also noted as a writer and a poet. He invented the word robot, which was introduced into literature by his brother, Karel Čapek.

Čapek was born in Hronov, Bohemia (Austria-Hungary, later Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic) in 1887. First a painter of the Cubist school, he later developed his own playful, minimalist style. He collaborated with his brother Karel on a number of plays and short stories; on his own, he wrote the utopian play Land of Many Names and several novels, as well as critical essays in which he argued for the art of the unconscious, of children, and of ‘savages’. He was named by his brother as the true inventor of the term robot. As a cartoonist, he worked for Lidové Noviny, a newspaper based in Prague.

Due to his critical attitude towards national socialism and Adolf Hitler, he was arrested after the German invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939. He wrote Poems from a Concentration Camp in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where he died in 1945. In June 1945 Rudolf Margolius, accompanied by Čapek’s wife Jarmila Čapková, went to Bergen-Belsen to search for him. His remains were never found. In 1948 the court officially set the date of his death, the day which he did not survive being 30 April 1947.

His illustrated stories Povídání o Pejskovi a Kočičce (All About Doggie and Pussycat) are considered classics of Czech children’s literature.

This is a part of the Wikipedia article used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA). The full text of the article is here →

I am so pleased to say that our anthology of family myths and legends will be published in September 2024, featuring work from:

1. 1. Oz Hardwick
   2. Phil Santus
   3. Ceinwen E Cariad Haydon
   4. Kate Young
   5. GP Hyde
   6. Neil Windsor
   7. Mick Yates
   8. Rebecca Lacey
   9. A C Clarke
   10. Felice Hardy
   11. Wendy Goulstone
   12. Patricia M Osborne
   13. Elizabeth Horrocks
   14. Liz Kendall
   15. Kate Copeland

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April always has me thinking about my Grandad, and the fact that he was a great teller of stories. When we were kids he would always come out with these brilliant tales from the War and before, and they have always stuck with me. As I have gotten older some of them became legends and perhaps myths, sitting in my mind, and it has always struck me that there is a part to be played in families and societies for such things.

The one he told that I always remember, was about the time he went on a daytrip to Weston-super-Mare, and taught the Ethiopian Messiah, Haile Selassie,  to swim.

Which to be fair is quite a claim and I’m not sure that I ever really believed it.

But yes, my Grandad was from Birmingham and even when I was a kid a day trip to Weston was the focal point of Summer, but.. Haile Selassie in the swimming pool in Weston S&M?

Really?

Anyway, it strikes me that most families have their legends and myths, and it is one of those that I would like you to admit, and share with the world in the shape of a poem, as this month’s challenge.

To be clear:

1. 1. Write a Poem that is based upon a myth or legend from your own family – or imagination if nothing else springs to mind
   2. The Winning poets will see their work featured in  a wee book sometime later this year

Rules:

1. 1. There are no length constraints
   2. You must be a Cult Member to submit your poem – sending it to competition@hedgehogpress.co.uk
   3. Send the poem by 11.59pm on the 31st May 2024

p.s. As this is a bit late, you have until the end of MAY to submit – enjoy!

Oh and …. in case you were wondering about my Grandad’s sanity