Young Poet’s Competition

The Cathedral’s Young Poet’s Competition is back — this time running in line with the academic year.

This year’s theme is Loving life! and it has been carefully unpacked by Children’s poet Jan Dean to encourage children to get excited and write creative poetry:

Celebrate how great it is to be alive by writing a poem about something that makes you feel wonderful. It could be a person, a place, an event, a sound, a taste, a scent. It could be a big important thing like a huge migration of birds or animals, or a tiny personal thing like the wrinkles on your grandma’s hands. Celebrate the huge variety of things in the world, gnats and gnus, fruit and fleas, songs and seas.

Maybe you’d like to think about what this amazing variety of stuff that we call Creation says about God the Maker. Maybe you’d just like to wonder… This subject is huge – you can write about the sound of rain, the taste of ketchup, the feel of a stone wall in the sunshine, the stripes in a lawn, a birthday party, an expedition to the South Pole, what your town looks like from the top of the Big Wheel – the list is endless. But remember this: write a poem that will make your readers feel what you feel about your subject.

Draw your reader in with lovely lively language so we can share your responses to whatever you choose to write about. Well, what are you waiting for? You are surrounded by miracles. Look at them. Experience them. Live life. Love life. Then get your pen and paper out and write a great poem to celebrate it! The competition is free to enter and there are prizes available for each category.

Entry forms are available to download here. The final date for entries to be received is 1st March 2010. The entries will be judged by Jan Dean and Canon Albert Radcliffe. There will be a special prize giving event at the Cathedral in the summer term.