Well done to all the poets who entered; as always, there were so much wonderful writing both within and outside the top ten. Congratulations to those in the top ten, your poems were all fabulous.
Special congrats to Tam Elliot and Liz, great poems from three fabulous writers.
Thanks to Nicola and all those who organised and judged this competition. Loved being part of this, my fifteenth competition in a row.
Certainly would, you and I have a lot to catch up on Mel
I like it to be honest, it adds to the feeling of the story and characterization. I will happily use google if I don't know the word, indeed I love writers like Tam and Wannabewordsworth when they introduce me to new words. And I do like it when French-Canadians like Chris put some French into their stories.
Mind you some have suggested that even my English is well, lets just say a bit foreign. Besotted, bush (as in forest wilderness,) doona for instance; rooting and pashing too. Sometimes I am not even aware how regional some of my expressions are lol. And I really appreciate that Lush doesn't like other sites enforce a consistency in spelling, I always use humour and arse and never humor and ass.
I used a couple of words of New Zealand Maori in Starting Over, which which seemed to work for readers; that or else Laura was the only reader who got it and everyone else was too polite to say. Sometimes there are even trans-Atlantic differences, some Europeans didn't really know the word zucchini which featured in my Zucchini and the art of Environmental Maintenance, being used to saying courgette for that vegetable.