ROMANCE has been in the air as the kingdom’s poets have put their prose to the test in a prize competition to find the country’s most Cupid-inspired wordsmiths to help celebrate St Valentine’s Day.
A panel of judges, led by Claudia Hardt, public relations and media director of Bahrain Writers’ Circle (BWC), has spent the weekend reading the array of entries posted on www.gdnlife.com, our community social media platform.
“There have been great entries and it was not easy to select only three winners,” she said. “All participants are definitely the winners of my heart and I would like to congratulate everyone. It takes a lot to express feelings and emotions, and to talk about love. It’s a very personal subject.
“The poem “Why should RED have all the fun?” touched my heart because of the beautiful description the writer expresses comparing that special person with an unusual colour for love, with yellow, instead of red. Our first thoughts would usually be that yellow indicates jealousy, betrayal and danger. However, it also symbolises optimism, energy, happiness and friendship.”
It was summed up beautifully in these four lines:
‘Black is too dark
White is too bright
Yellow, like you, is
Warm and just right’
Gayathri Viswanath’s entry was considered the most heart-warming and wins a fabulous St Valentine’s meal-for-two and a box of vegan chocolates to enjoy.
The GDN teamed up with Casa Mexicana Restaurant in Adliya for the gift of a three-course meal-for-two today and Raw Candy, with outlets at Almoayyed Tower and the Financial Harbour, for the prizes.
Two runners-up will receive a Raw Candy hamper of prized sweet-but-healthy delights too. They are Jeremy Thomas for ‘An ode to the love between us’ and Vigneshwari Natarajan’s ‘A never-ending love story’.
Aspiring poets are invited to connect with BWC, a volunteer group established in 2011 by best-selling true crime author Robin Barratt.
It welcomes writers at all stages of their writing lives and aims to create an encouraging environment in which to nurture creativity, improve the craft of writing and provide an opportunity to network with other writers.
The BWC has two sub-groups, The Second Circle – a poetry group and the Creative Writers’ Workshops – which explores the craft of writing. A monthly meeting on the business of writing and publishing takes place on the second Monday of every month. All meetings are held virtually at the moment. The BWC is now probably the biggest group of international and local writers in Bahrain.
Also, the BWC’s 9th annual Colours of Life Poetry Festival will be presented virtually on Saturday, May 14. Last year’s online festival featured 13 member poets, Bahraini and expat talents.
For further information and updates visit Facebook @BahrainWritersCircle, Instagram @bahrainwriterscircle, www.bahrainwriterscircle.net or email bahrainwriterscirclebwc@yahoo.com.
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