Written by Esther, Year 12
Earlier this year, I entered a poem called The Flâneur in the Tower Poetry Competition, which is open to 16-18 year olds in the UK.
I felt particularly encouraged to write following the incredible Arvon Foundation poetry course, which I attended with school in the summer. My poem went through many iterations and is essentially a meandering journey of thoughts and words about what it took me to get to the end of writing it. It is also a poem about planets; and it turned out to be the poem that came first in the Christopher Tower Poetry prize!
Knowing only that I had been shortlisted to the final thirteen, I went to Christ Church College in Oxford on Wednesday 19th April 2023 for what was one of the most nerve-racking, but ultimately exciting, afternoons of my life.
All in all, the competition is such an amazing opportunity for young poets and I’m so grateful to have had the chance to enter, let alone win, especially among such a brilliant group of writers, many of whom I was lucky enough to be able to meet at the ceremony.
If you’re considering entering next year I have nothing to say but go for it, and enjoy the writing – you never know where it will take you!
Click here to read Esther’s poem on the Tower Poetry Website.