E: 05/10 Win a £50/€60 personalised National Book Token (Poetry Effort)National Poetry Day 2025

Midnighter

National Book Tokens

url: https://www.nationalbooktokens.com/win/the-poetry-playground-awaits-enter-our-national-poetry-day-writing-competition

Thursday the 2nd of October is National Poetry Day – and this year’s theme is play!

To celebrate, we’re inviting you to enter the poetry playground and let your creativity run wild… for the chance to win a glorious £50/€60 personalised National Book Token featuring your poem. One runner-up will receive a £25/€30 gift card in our standard design.

Entries will be judged by the wonderful CLiPPA and Jhalak Prize-nominated poet (and Jhalak Poetry Prize 2026 judge) Nikita Gill.

Your writing prompt? Play! Please feel free to interpret this prompt in whatever way you wish. There are limitless ways to play and be playful, so let your imagination loose, and show us what poetry and play mean to you.

Competition rules, hints and tips:

• Poems must be no longer than 14 lines in length. All poetry is welcome, and there are no rules or restrictions around rhyme scheme, metre, genre or style, so long as your poem is no longer than 14 lines.
• A minimum of one poem and maximum of 10 poems can be submitted per entrant.
• Entrants must be aged 16 or over.
• Entrants can submit poems on behalf of those under the age of 16.
• We recommend saving poem(s) in a backed-up document before copying and pasting into the entry form, so you don't lose your work.
• Where possible, please indicate line breaks by using / (e.g. 'I think that I shall never see /A poem lovely as a tree').
• Entrants must submit their poems by midnight, Sunday 5th October 2025.