Following on from last year’s annual National Poetry Day competition, Longbenton Metro station is now home to the winning poems for all to enjoy. 317 entries were received by Nexus on the theme of “Journey” and now four are now available to be seen by the public at the station.
All the entries were judged by representatives from Nexus alongside poet Kris Johnson and Alice Mullen (manager of the Poetry Book Society).
The competition was won by Claire Lynn, a creative writing teacher from Hexham, with her poem “Crossing to Lindisfarne”.
She said: “I first walked across to Lindisfarne about 5 years ago, and that is what inspired the poem. I’ve never won a competition before so I’m absolutely delighted with this, the poems looks fantastic.”
Runners up were Davina Prince from Leicestershire, Phil Barratt from Norfolk and Pat Winslow from Oxfordshire.
All four now have their poems on display whilst Claire also received £100 Waterstones vouchers and membership to the Poetry Book Society with the runners up receiving £50 Waterstones vouchers.
Huw Lewis, Customer Services Director at Nexus, said: “We have a long history of making Metro a platform for creativity, in many forms. Placing art and poetry in public places like train stations, where people don’t expect to see it, is a great way of introducing it to the public. We received more entries this year than ever before, and they’re coming in from all over the country, which is fantastic. The standard of poems has been exceptional, and I hope our customers enjoy reading them as much as I did.”
- The winning poems can also be read online at https://www.nexus.org.uk/poetry