We were delighted to hear the fantastic news recently that Nalini W in Year 7 had been judged the winner of the Shepton Snowdrops poetry competition 2024 in the under 11 category. The theme was ‘nature unbound’ and attracted hundreds of entries from all over the UK and beyond!

The judges said of Nalini’s poem “Whenever I judge children’s poetry I feel as if I am holding something very precious in my hands. The role of poetry judge in children’s poetry is certainly to encourage everyone; we need more poetry in the world and the joy of poetry must be seeded early on. But there is also a responsibility to identify and reward genuine talent, skill, and craft in poetry writing, and this is what I found in this incredible poem. This poem stopped me in my tracks. It is a beautiful, poignant, gentle poem, but it is also superbly crafted with close attention to line breaks, stanza breaks, language, imagery… all the things that elevate a poem from prose and make it sing.”

You can read Nalini’s brilliant poem here.

We asked Nalini about her poetry:

Is this the first poem you have entered into a competition?

No, this is not the first poetry competition I have entered. I entered a national one earlier this academic year called ‘Solstice’ and came highly commended. I decided to try again and submit a different poem to try and win.

What inspired you to write it?

I have always been very interested in the environment and hoped that if my poem got published, people would become more aware of the issues we face.

Do you enjoy all forms of writing? Which is your favourite?

I enjoy all forms of writing, but my main favourite is actually creative writing, but poetry comes close second. 

Do you have three top tips for writing a great poem?

To write a successful poem, you have to consider every word carefully, every single one matters. I think that a big part of poetry writing is editing because your poem could always become better than it already is. Another key thing is that you have to feel inspired by what you are writing about hence why I chose trees. If you don’t care about the subject you are writing about then it will be hard to make your poem emotive and powerful. Finally, I believe all poems should have a message, however big or small. I chose to write about deforestation because I think it is a big issue that everyone needs to play a part in to reduce.

Huge congratulations to Nalini on a beautiful poem!