THE SECOND ANNUAL WATERFORD COMPETITION
Announcing the return of the annual waterford competition. The competition was launched in 2024 to promote and establish a new, unique, poetry format – the “waterford” – on the world stage!
When it comes to poetry, one of the most recognisable formats is the limerick. While its exact origins are hazy, it has
been around for a very long time, possibly since the 13th century. There is some doubt as to why it is so-named, many believing it’s because early examples were sung to the tune of an old Irish soldiers song (Will You Come Up to Limerick?) but there is a well-documented connection to the Maigue Poets, some hundred years before Edward Lear made this style of verse universally popular, and so Limerick’s claim to fame seems unchallengeable. While liberties are often taken with the now-established format – in terms of rhyming scheme, line length and the like – the tradition for insults and rudeness continues. Finally, County Waterford has had enough, and it’s time for the limerick to face some healthy inter county rivalry. A new poetry format, called the “waterford”, has been developed, and unlike the mean limerick, at its heart, the waterford is all about being nice!
West Waterford Arts Group – a cross-pollinating community of artists meeting in West Waterford with a multi-disciplinary approach to creativity – thinks the limerick has had its own way for long enough! Our West Waterford Poets have been meeting on the third Monday of every month for three years now, indulging a shared love of poetry by reading their original poems in a safe and supportive space, and enjoying all manner of poetry-related discussions. One of those touched on the predominance of the limerick. It seemed unsatisfactory that County Waterford had no recognisable poetry format of its own. Inspired by the group’s passion for the idea, one of our founders, Kevin MacAlan, devised a new, unique, poetry format – and the “waterford” was born.
A waterford is shorter than a limerick – it has only four lines. Like the limerick, it has its own rhythm and has to rhyme in a particular way – the 1st and 4th lines have eight syllables each and rhyme with each other, and the 2nd and 3rd have four syllables each, and rhyme with each other. This makes the waterford a single verse quatrain, with an ABBA rhyming scheme (if you want to get all technical about it). Think of the waterford as a word caricature, a thumbnail character sketch in four lines. These thumbnail sketches can be about people, places, or artworks. The lines have a strict 8, 4, 4, 8 syllable count, and use that ABBA rhyming scheme, but another important distinction between the limerick and the waterford, is that although the waterford should be all about cartooning the subject in a poem, the result is intended to be complimentary. The idea is that a waterford celebrates its subject; it’s a positive commentary.
The waterford writing competition is open to all and free to enter. Just remember the rules will be applied strictly – we’ll entertain no limerick-esque slapdashery here in County Waterford, thank you very much! This means a waterford can be biographic (about a person or group of people), geographic (about a place), or ekphrastic (about an artwork or artform). It must be positive, and it is a single verse that must have 4 lines of 8, 4, 4, 8 syllables with an ABBA rhyming scheme.
This year’s competition has a special guest judge: Lismore-based poet and collage artist, Alan Murphy. The best entries will be published and the winning poets will be invited to perform their waterfords at a special spoken word event in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford in December 2025. All you have to do is email your entries (as many as you like) to waterfordpoem@protonmail.com before midnight on November 15th 2025 and we’ll show the limerick just who’s boss.
For further information, some examples of waterfords and an online entry form, go to the competition website: https://scanner.topsec.com/?d=1500&r=show&u=www.waterford.carrd.co&t=7371af6b0a2fc952bf3589870ef88eb3a2108b7a
Stay poetic!