The Poetry Project  will be screened at the wonderful Kinsale Arts Festival, from July 6 to 14, in the beautiful south west of Ireland, so if you want an amazing cultural experience, look no further than Kinsale.

Plus: win more prizes with the Poetry Project.

To celebrate the event, we have another great competition, this time to win tickets to see Irish poet Leontia Flynn at the Festival, plus a Festival Friendship worth €150. Last time round we asked you for your words on The Irish Poem Is. This time, we’d love those thoughts in visual form – so send an image to info@thepoetryproject.ie, and we’ll select the lucky winner. Deadline June 30.

Winner announced…

Congratulations to Fionnuala Broughan!

… rooted in its place of origin; open to all.

A poem for a Monday morning…

What better way to start the week, wherever you are in the world?

Every week, since January 1st 2013, The Poetry Project has been uploading a poem and accompanying video artwork, in celebration of Ireland’s literary and visual creativity. Week by week, over the past six months, readers have been able to follow the work of leading, and emerging artists and writers, and discover Ireland through different eyes. If you missed any of the weekly updates, a full list of links is available to browse at www.thepoetryproject.ie.

The Poetry Project is absolutely free and was devised by the Kinsale Arts Festival in partnership with Poetry Ireland and the Royal Hibernian Academy, to create an online event of art and poetry as part of the Culture Programme for the duration of the Irish EU Presidency.

Poems are selected by Gerard Smyth, Poetry Editor of The Irish Times and Joseph Woods, Director of Poetry Ireland. Video works are selected and commissioned by writer and curator Gemma Tipton, and Patrick T. Murphy, Director of the Royal Hibernian Academy.

At it’s launch in November 2012, Jimmy Deenihan TD, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, said, “Through the ages, our poetry preambled Ireland. It remains our global herald. Of late, our film craft too announces us as creators of some renown and in a relatively new medium. A cohabitation of poetry sound and video image in this unique project is a frontier and daring teasing of the boundaries of these art forms. It is another unique example of the gently persuasive powers of arts combined.”

Now with over 50,000 visitors in 118 countries – this unique and groundbreaking project has now been extended for another ten weeks. Knowing how challenging it can be to incorporate poetry and art into busy schedules, The Poetry Project’s decision to  bring deliver poems directly to reader’s inboxes has been a winner: just one click and you can stream a piece of Irish video art straight to your desk, sofa or even bed, or sit back and read an Irish poem. For some it serves as a potent reminder of the Ireland they have left or visited, for others it provides a more enriched view of Ireland and its contemporary culture

To celebrate it’s success and extended run, The Poetry Project are running ten weekly competitions, the first of which offers the chance to win a Friendship to Kinsale Arts Festival worth €150, plus tickets to see Leontia Flynn reading at the Festival on July 9. Enter simply by emailing an image inspired by the line “The Irish Poem Is…” to info@thepoetryproject.ie. The closing date is June 30, and another competition will be announced on July 1.

Poem and competition details are emailed to subscribers (it’s free to subscribe at www.thepoetryproject.ie) each Monday, or find more information on their Facebook page.

There will be a special screening of the project at the Kinsale Arts Festival, Ireland’s arts festival by the sea. July 6 to 14.

As The Poetry Project say, “Be moved, inspired and enthralled” by fabulous words and images  – married with new technologies, this innovative combination really is bringing Irish poetry directly to readers.

That’s right, our six month project has been extended for another three months. Thanks to the feedback we’ve been receiving from our more than 20,000 viewers, and to the wonderful poets and artists, whose work has been inspiring lovers of Irish art and culture in 102 countries, we’re including more poems and videos, running until September 2013.

So thank you again, to you all for following the Poetry Project.
Keep watching, and tell your friends!

It has always been a mystery to me why the whole world doesn’t seem to be as in love with poetry and art as it could be. After all, when something happens to draw attention to it (such as Seamus Heaney winning the Nobel Prize, or W.H. Auden’s poem Stop the Clocks featuring in Four Weddings and a Funeral) books of poetry top the best seller lists. One thought was that you don’t necessarily sit down and read a book of poetry from cover to cover, as you might with a novel; and you have to make the effort to go to a gallery to see art.

The Poetry Project is a way of changing this, and with the support of Culture Ireland, Ireland’s Presidency of the EU became the opportunity. We got three organisations together – the Kinsale Arts Festival, Poetry Ireland and the Royal Hibernian Academy – and set about selecting a poem per week, and pairing them with a short (no longer than three minutes) video… The poems were selected by poet Gerard Smyth, who is also poetry editor of The Irish Times, and by Joseph Woods of Poetry Ireland; and the videos by myself, Gemma Tipton, and Patrick Murphy of the RHA.

Now, week-by-week, the results of this unique collaboration are emailed directly to subscribers, and can also be seen online at www.thepoetryproject.ie. We launched on January 1st, and have been thrilled with the response. It’s free to sign up, and free to view, and people are now seeing Irish poetry and contemporary from points around the world. Won’t you join them and spread the love?

“Niesje” by Clea van der Grijnn