Following on from Dylan’s Great Poem, ‘Love the Words’ is an annual celebration of the power and magic of words, and is part of International Dylan Thomas Day, which takes place on May 14 each year.
This time around, Love the Words encourages people of any age, anywhere in the world, to contribute to what will hopefully be the world’s longest love poem.
Simply write a line of poetry on the theme of ‘love’ in order to contribute to the epic verse, which will be collated by Dylan Day coordinators, Hannah Ellis, who is Dylan’s grand-daughter, and poet and writer Mab Jones.
As a suggestion, you might want to use one of these prompts to complete your piece of writing:
Love is…
Love isn’t…
Love is like…
Love is as ________ as….
Love can….
Love makes me…
But you are free to write anything you like, of course! Think about how love makes you feel, why it is important; think about the images that spring to mind when you contemplate it; and, play with words and language, have fun with writing! You can write as many lines as you like and enter as many times as you like, too.
Remember to have fun with similes and metaphors, alliteration, and any other techniques, as these are enjoyable to do and enjoyable to read, as well. A further blog post from Mab will help you look at these, and learn about them, shortly.
You can join with this activity any time from Thursday March 1, on Facebook and on Twitter. Simply use the hashtags #LovetheWords AND #DylanDay, along with your line of poetry, in order to take part.
The competition closes on Friday May 4 at midnight.
The completed poem will be shared online on the Discover Dylan Thomas website on Dylan Day, May 14.
Let’s #LovetheWords together and see if we can break the world record for the world’s longest love poem!
Please contact intdylanthomasday@gmail.com or hannah@discoverdylanthomas.com if you have any further queries.
Featured image designed by Lee Jones.
Love makes me feel alive
It gives me wings to fly
And be myself
Thank you Helen for your contribution.
Oh it’s you is enough you are there and here
love changes
MOR FM radio sop
into an everyman gospel
and
stops me falling off the world
I look at your logo and think….
l is like the wand that brings magic in all that we share
o is the everlasting ring that celebrates our pure bright golden love
v are the wings that will allow us both to fly into the heavens when our mortal vessels are needed no more
e is the rocking chair that we both share, shading us from the harshness of those who ever wish that love fails.
Yes it is a word, but it is so much more.
Teach us, Dylan, to love as you did, “being dizzy” and with “falling dreams”
Teach us to walk “down an ecstatic line of light”
when Love comes
and
– like you –
to “taste upon our lips”
“the breath of indigo” and “the emerald kiss”
Lidia Chiarelli, Italy
for #LovetheWords
#DylanDay
Love is giving her the language so words may blossom into understanding how you feel
Love is … walking through parabolas of light
#LovetheWords #DylanDay
Love, irrespective of caste, colour or creed, is what is needed to save humanity,
From the incessant calamity.
Show love, show care,show your concern,take action
Stop all discrimination.
Loving words are wishes for good nights before the moon burning light.
Your love envelops and caresses, as the light summer breeze to the trembling aspen
#lovethewords #dylanthomasday
Love is a trickster, selling quack remedies; they taste good at the time, but rarely cure your ills.
Love is the missing piece of a lifetorn puzzle
I cupped your hand, a clenched fist,
in my hand and you opened
a tentative quarter inch.
Love is caused by oxytocin
And exists solely inside my head
But your strange alchemic kisses
Made me drag you to my bed.
My beloved, you run through me like words through a stick of rock.
Love is often having to say you’re sorry!
Love is not a drug, it is a wake-up call
Love is not all you need, but without it we cannot live, only survive.
In the end, the love you make is much more important than the love you fake
Love isn’t expectation,
Wanting more and more of me each time,
Never giving.
Love is not accepting any old words from you,
Calling me a loser,
“But it’s okay, because I still like you.”
I don’t have to listen to any sugar-coated drivel
Or thinly-veiled manipulations.
No, thank you.
I don’t love you enough for that,
Or maybe at all.
You love full as a Universe, and I a thimble,
Though that thimble is an ocean more than I could ever love before… #LovrtheWords #DylanDay
Between his first and last breath
a man has to decide
to spend his time dying
or loving:
Love, giving is living.
Love is sadness at not being able to do that one little thing
Love can fill your life full of colour and the noise of life
But when torn they can pour out into the void leaving only the blackness that is empty of sound
The last word I heard …
Love💜💛💕💗❤
Curving
Skyward
To blue vastness
Of days
Halcyon dusted
With sparkly bits and bobs afloat
In champagne bubbling brooks
And streams
Tracing
Soft, serpentine contours
Of rivers
Waterfalls, splish splashing
Tears of joy
Cascading confetti
Spaghetti
Sauce
And fine red wine
Mama Mia
Here I go again
Cupids bow
Pings arrows
High arching
To bluebird fly
Somewhere
Over the rainbow
Wrapped in the arms
Of a stratocumulus
Love will catch you
If you fall❤💗💕💛💜
True love is true desire; turns heat into fire.
True love I got a glimpse of you; turn the wheel, take me higher.
Love is a reach across the ocean,
daring to hope after decades of
sitting quietly below craggy cliffs.
Now she dreams of the land with
bullrushes where he is hidden,
camouflaged, but like her,
in search of the bedrock,
a place of re-birth.
Love – strong or weak, big or small, lost or found – you choose!
Love is your velvet murmur
poured like kindness across the driest day
Love is a gift from above.
Love is a gift from above.