This is a fantastic achievement for Juliet, with her poem chosen from over 15,800 entries from as far afield as Romania, New Zealand, and Trinidad and Tobago. The top 100 winning poets were announced at a ceremony at Shakespeare’s Globe on 5^th October, and the winners all received a year’s youth membership of The Poetry Society and a bag full of books. Here is Juliet’s wonderful poem:

I am going to make a hat

I am going to make a hat.
A hundred different parts all pulled together,
With red embroidery thread.
Buttons, so it stays together,
A key, so I’m never far from home,
Feathers, so it can fly.

Ribbon, so it feels nice when you hold it,
Sea glass, so it makes pretty colours in the light,
And a brass beetle, so it can remember him.
All arranged like a bouquet
On a green felt hat.

I’m going to put it on.

I’m wearing my hat
Wherever it shall take me
And we walk
Together
And the harsh winds whip my hair around,
But I don’t care.
Because I’m wearing my hat
My hat takes me to the beach
We gaze out upon the great chalk cliffs
We look over the sun bleached sand.

I take off my hat
I set it on the sand
I look at it
I leave.

I think the sea needs it more than me.