Bards are back and speaking bruck

A new round of the Bards in da Bog poetry competition is being launched – with an anti-litter theme.

Titled “Bards in da Bruck”, poems should have an anti-litter theme and the competition is open to secondary aged school pupils.

Since the launch of Bards in 2009 there have been six rounds of the competition, including special rounds in 2010 to celebrate the hamefarin and 2014 for the year of dialect.

This year Shetland Library, in partnership with Shetland Amenity Trust, is running the Bards in da Bruck competition to link into an anti-litter project the amenity trust is undertaking with the Anderson High School and Brae High School.

Alec Henry, a member of the Anderson High School Pupil Council, has designed a poster for the competition.

Trust environmental officer Sita Goudie said: “Bards is a great way to expand the anti-litter project to all secondary aged pupils and hopefully inspire them to think about where litter comes from and what we can do to tackle it.

“While the project we are undertaking with the Anderson and Brae High Schools is focusing on roadside litter, litter can come from many sources.

“The poetry competition can focus on any type of litter or just have a general anti-litter theme. With Da Voar Redd Up approaching, there is plenty of bruck around to inspire the pupils.”

There will be two prize categories for the poetry competition – secondary 1-3 and 4-6. Poems should be no more than 14 lines and lines shouldn’t be too long.

Library manager Karen Fraser added: “Our Bards competitions have always been popular and we hope this litter theme will prove inspirational.

“Eight winners will be selected to be displayed in toilets throughout Shetland. While the poems can be no longer than 14 lines, we encourage pupils to use any poetry style and dialect if they wish.

“The library will be judging the competition and we really want to see a good range of poetry from both age categories. If pupils are looking for ideas they can view previous winning poems on our website.”

The competition is open until 24th April, giving time for entries to be completed over the holidays or in school time.
To enter, pupils should write their name, school and class on the back of their poem and hand it in at their school library.