A New Regular Writing Opportunity

´Winged Words´ with Bronwen R. Evans

artwork by Bronwen R. Evans

We are delighted to bring you another regular writing opportunity. Every two months, Winged Words offers you a bird related poetry prompt created by The Wee Sparrow Poetry Press team member and birder, Bronwen R. Evans.

These prompts are designed to offer a journey through our connections with nature and love of birds, navigating the realms of folklore, bird literature, gentle ecology, and experiences of the natural world. Whether your relationship with birds exists through stories & song, your garden feeders, following them across the globe, or simply appreciating the robin on your morning commute, there’s a place for you here. Selected poems will be featured in our newsletter. We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Submission Guidelines

- Every two months a submission window will be announced via our newsletter along with a poetry prompt for you to follow. (*See below for your first prompt.)

- Poems must relate to the prompt, but wide interpretation is considered. Although we love birds, birds do not necessarily need to be a part of your poem. We appreciate that they can make us think of many things!

- One poem per entry (unpublished work only).

- Please send submissions to wingedwords.weesparrow@gmail.com

- Please only include your name in the body of your email. Poems will be read anonymously, so please do not include your name on your poetry document.

- Please note any relevant social media handles/websites in your email.

- Please include a short bio (50 words max).

- Word docs or PDFs please.

- 40 lines max per poem excluding title.

- All the poems will be read by Bronwen and she will choose one poem per prompt which will be featured in our newsletter.

*Prompt One: The Curlew, Harbinger of Nature.

Submissions open 28th January to 28th February

Welcome to the first bird poetry prompt for ´Winged Words´. This prompt will gently lead you through some folklore around one of my favourite birds, to develop your ideas for a poem. This bird, steeped in magic, has inspired countless writers, and I hope it will provide inspiration for you also. Good luck!

Throughout history, the curlew, the UK’s largest wading bird, has been embroiled in our attempts to navigate the natural world. We have believed them to be ghosts, goblins, hell beasts, traitors, judges, and opposingly, blessed birds of celtic faith. This prompt however, is most interested in their status as one of nature’s harbingers, messengers of fate.

Folklore of the British Isles has often held the curlew as a supernatural creature of the ‘otherworld’, an eerie warner of doom. One such 16th century tale, tells of seven curlew spirits that would call out, flying over the coastland. To hear the haunting bubbling song of these birds was to be foretold of sailors’ deaths at sea, bringing terror to those who witnessed their cries.

Poets in more recent years however, without the burden of needing to make sense of a bewildering natural world, widely regard the curlew’s call as an uplifting signaller that Spring and lighter days lie ahead. We are offered the idea then, that we find a reflection of our place in history, our emotions, whether they be of fear, sadness, or joy, in the way that we understand and experience nature.

For your poem, I would like you to explore your own interpretation of the messages you find in nature, whether this be when appreciating a tree near your house, journeying deep into the hills, or from a purely imaginative place. Does the magpie become your sentinel, the robin’s song your ancestral guide, the hare your sign that magic is afoot? Do you feel your questions answered as the wind blows through the leaves, peace as the stream bubbles, or does the full moon cleanse the land of winter’s burdens as you look towards this new year?

Reality, fairytale, folklore, fate; whatever you choose, may the shapeshifting essence of the magical curlew guide your way.

-Bronwen

Happy writing!