2025 Hampshire Young Poets Competition
Best Lines and Winners

 

4-7s

BEST LINES

Noah Dixon: ‘Friendship is like me and my friend sitting in candyfloss’

Sophie Abou Youssef: ‘Friends have a big hearts connected to you and me’

Euphemia Moppett-Stean: ‘Friends are kind, friends are nice. Sometimes friends give you head lice’

Kit Fontana: ‘Friendship is like a flower pot that cannot shatter’

Henry Robinson: ‘Something glitters in the sunlight. A friend to show you the way’

 

THIRD PLACE – Dean Smith

Friend

Freezing cold
Really hot
In the rain
Every day
Never apart
Dear to my heart

 

SECOND PLACE – Pia Allum

We like to pretend that three of us are the oldest and four of us are the youngest.
We play on the field by the book shed where books are read.
My tummy feels like a fizzy drink.
As everyone giggles and wiggles they all smile with joy.
The weather is sunny as we play together.
It is very special to have friends.

 

FIRST PLACE – Edith Davies
Friends

A friend from the future
A friend from the stars
A friend from grasslands
A friend from Mars
A friend like a flower that shines bright
All evening, day and night.

 

8-11s

BEST LINES

Samuel Jones: ‘If I were a disease and you were human, I wouldn’t infect you’

Penny Tewkesbury: ‘as positive as a blue macaw, flying with some parrots’

Shivanshi Upadhyay: ‘A duck, a cat, and me, the learners, recording life as a quiet observer.’

Harry Ainsworth: ‘He helps me remember simple things in English and Science, so I have room in my brain for more complex things.’
Pheobe Heywood: ‘I will stop loving you when: I count all my blood cells one by one.’

THIRD PLACE – Shivanshi Upadhyay

To My Ginger Ninja 

She walks the line where light and shadow meet, 
A puzzle full of laughs and moods upbeat. 

Her jokes, a healing touch when times get tough, 
One laugh from her, and I’m happy enough.. 

Our bond’s a mix of madness, depth, and peace, 
Mature (mostly), but mayhem’s on the loose.  

Through all our highs and lows, she’s always there, 
A steady light, a friend beyond compare. 

No sword or storm could break what we have grown— 
A tie that time can stretch but never own.

So here’s to you, my ninja, bright and bold, 
With stories shared and memories yet told. 

For all the joy, the chaos, and the cheer, 
Ginger Ninja—I’m glad that you are near. 

 

SECOND PLACE – Lana Killick

My friendships are fake  
My loves are lies  
My heart in pieces  
My body dies  
This friendship a corpse  
Rotting on the floor  
You reincarnated  
Knocking at the door 
But I’m not there  
Not anymore.  

 

FIRST PLACE – Autumn Turnbull

Three’s a crowd

1+1+1  
doesn’t always equal three: 
there’s always a minus 1. 

In a triangle, two points 
are always close, laughing, 
while one point looks on longingly. 

But a triangle has: 
3 sides, 3 angles, 3 hearts  
all looking out for each other 

 

12-16s

BEST LINES
Evelyn Cowhig: ‘arms wrapped as tight as if it was the last time, every time.’

Zoe Barrett-Payton: ‘We’re teenagers now, it’s hard to believe. I’m sorry I made friends with you, knowing I had to leave’

Charlotte Diamond: ‘Be careful though, trust is like paper. Once crumpled, it’s never the same’

Elisabeth Schofield: ‘Friendships can be made in a day, but they grow, just like chives’

Amelia Smith: ‘Friendship is a like an element that combines into trust’

 

THIRD PLACE - Clara Ribeiro

A Love

A love that endlessly circles and unites, 
In behaviours and instants that shape us, 
The brief catch-ups over phone late at night, 
A shoulder to cry on, so gracious, 
The platonic brushing of lips across cheeks, 
The momentary squeeze at the end of a hug, 
The flower that goes unwatered for weeks, 
Blossoms through a thought, a text, a shrug, 
The unfiltered gossip and sharing of pains, 
The boisterous laughing and heart-to-hearts, 
The promise of having no secrets or strains, 
The oscillating cycle of ends and restarts. 
Friendship,  
Oh, how beautiful thou art. 

 

SECOND PLACE – Isla Johnson

Eclipse of Silence

My problems blind, then shadow yoursI'm the moon in an eclipse.
I wear worries like a mask.
Troubles crawl from my lips.
Infected butterflies squirm,
swarm my stomach, pollute my brain.
But we solve them hand in hand...
Where's the hand that holds your pain?
Prisoned behind the moon's shadow,
troubles await a forgotten key.
I drowned fears you never cried
But I promise I'll set them free...
I'm listening now to tears unshed
To every word your silence bled

 

FIRST PLACE – Eliza Carrick

Night Stalker 

Watching you from afar when you were young, 
The growing bloodlust, stronger, as you age. 
A chance meeting while in a tree I hung, 
Poor little soul, she thought I was a mage. 

In her house, my eyes focus on her neck. 
Her long wavy hair, in soft ripples, hangs. 
“You look so pale, are you okay?” She checks, 
Then here eyes catch on my pearly white fangs 

Her neck so warm, her blood so very sweet, 
Her life force fading, her heart-beats now stop. 
Fangs sink deeper into the tender meat. 
The false pretense of friendship I now drop. 

Friendship? She thought. Don't make me laugh! 
Human like her? She thought. I'm only half.