Long listed for the WALKING HOME writing competition run in January & February 2022

Sharp sickle, clean and cutting, 
curves in a neat hug, semi-halo, 
curled crescent new, launching 
a homecoming, glow in the sky, 
a warm grin on a winter’s night 
as if someone had lit a beacon 
to hail the wanderer’s safe return 
by the skirt of the inky park.

The fox and I halt, eye each other, 
who invades whose territory
and who crosses whose path? 
The shock of rust coat, rustling, 
emerges from distant darkness, 
scuttles across road into gardens 
and I similarly home to feed
on anything I can scavenge.

Read more from the Long List of poems and stories submitted to the WALKING HOME writing competition. Watch winning authors reading their work on the video of the Write About Walking Home showcase event that took place on Sunday 25 September 2022.

Itching to write something yourself? Submit a piece to our Shorelines project, and invite your friends to read it aloud. Join one of our creative writing workshops or keep up to date with all our competitions by signing up to our curated newsletter here.

Purchase a copy of WALKING 2022 – an illustrated anthology of poems and stories on the theme of “Walking Home” for €4.99+p&p (see image to the left) or go for a bundle of WALKING 2022 AND WALKING 2021 – a similar illustrated anthology of poems and stories on the theme of “Walking and Listening”- a bumper package of 27 poems and stories and save €1.50 (see image to the right). Purchase from our Shop.