Previous Tower Poetry Competitions

First Prize: Nabiha Ali, with the poem mirror in [virginia's room] circa 1919.

Second Prize: Heather Chapman, with the poem Two Vampires Cut Each Other's Hair in Front of the Mirror.

Third Prize: Sasha Mostafa, with the poem Photographic Memory.

Commended: Erin Bishop, with the poem Ode To The Older Sister.

Commended: Magdalena Bone, with the poem 9:12am.

Commended: Tabitha Giddings, with the poem After Eve.

Commended: Daphne Harries, with the poem Mamgu / Mirror.

Commended: Ivy Leatherbarrow, with the poem Mice bites (in the mirror). 

Commended: William G Marshall, with the poem Driving Lessons To Reflect On.

Commended: Luke Roberts, with the poem Lake-Face.

Commended: Izzie Smith, with the poem The Worst Man You'll Ever Meet.

Commended: Oscar Tavernier, with the poem NamoW.

Commended: Leah Vickery, with the poem Jej Twarz.

First Prize: Esther Keeley, with the poem The Flâneur.

Second Prize: Liv Goldreich, with the poem Orbit.

Third Prize: Elise Withey, with the poem Future of Space Travel c.1783.

Commended: Erin Bishop, with the poem Eulogies To Things That Have Not Yet Died.

Commended: Ellen Bray Koss, with the poem falling in love with pluto again in the alleyway behind my house.

Commended: Eloise Davis, with the poem Mars.

Commended: Louise Guy, with the poem Voyager.

Commended: Grace Lea, with the poem Three Children. 

Commended: Lauren Lisk, with the poem A Black Girl Fears the Sun.

Commended: Iona Mandal, with the poem Planetary Periods of a Human Life (Inspired by The Planets - Gustav Holst).

Commended: Malak O'Neill, with the poem Sonnets On A Night With Aliocha

Commended: Phoebe Palmer, with the poem Staring into Space.

Commended: Elizabeth Grace Strassheim, Waning.

First Prize: Leo Kang Beevers from Heckmondwike Grammar School, West Yorkshire, with the poem As a Moment Glimpsed Only Through Migration.

Second Prize: Erin Hateley from Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School, Kent, with the poem Most people forget their dreams but I know them so I wrote them all down for you.

Third Prize: Livvy Owen from Clifton College, Bristol, with the poem Dreambird.

Commended: Reona Halili from Wallington County Grammar School, Surrey, with the poem THE WAITER AT THE EQUIDISTANT CAFE WEARS A NAME TAG THAT READS MORPHEUS.

Commended: Seohyun (Amy) Shin from Albyn School, Aberdeen, with the poem Hanbok.

Commended: Tallula Haynes from Godalming College, Surrey, with the poem Alleyway Farmer.

First Prize: Amy Beverley from St Leonard’s Catholic School, Durham, with the poem Dance of the Prisoner.

Second Prize: Victoria Fletcher from St Paul’s Girls’ School, London, with the poem 15 days in a cage with Charlotte Brontë.

Third Prize: Ayra Ahmad from Dyce Academy, Aberdeen, with the poem Victoria Street.

Commended: Naz Kaynakcioglu from Exeter College, Devon, with the poem Daughter.

Commended: Skye Linforth from Sir John Deane’s Sixth Form College, Cheshire, with the poem A House With Narrow Windows.

Commended: Em Power from Esher College, Surrey, with the poem Ode To All The Locks.

First Prize: Nadia Lines from The Broxbourne School, Hertfordshire, with the poem Woodland For Sale.

Second Prize: Fiyinfoluwa Timothy Oladipo from Varndean College, East Sussex, with the poem Sonnet to Palm Sunday.

Third Prize: Ahana Banerji from Putney High School, London, with the poem The Banyan Tree.

Commended: Joyce Chen from Westminster School, London, with the poem Eating.

Commended: Sabrina Coghlan-Jasiewicz from Newstead Wood School for Girls, Kent, with the poem Burial Rites.

Commended: Zara Meadows from Belfast Royal Academy, Northern Ireland, with the poem Treehugger, Summer 2005.

Commended: Toby Morrison from Oakham School, Rutland, with the poem A Tree.

First Prize: Lucy Prescott from Lakes School, Cumbria, with the poem ‘In a Room With Just Bedding’.

Second Prize: Lucy Holland with the poem ‘Learning to swim’.

Third Prize: Joseph Harrison from London Oratory School, with the poem ‘Thalassa’.

Commended: Isobel Falk from Tiffin Girls’ School, London, with the poem ‘Sleeping Swimmer’.

Commended: Anjali Mulcock from Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Girls, Hertfordshire, with the poem ‘the lost sailor’s ecstatic drowning’.

Commended: Flora Rugman from Latymer Upper School, London, with the poem ‘on agnes swimming’.

First Prize: Taraneh Peryie from Bristol Grammar School, with the poem 'Richard'.

Second Prize: Lucy Holland with the poem 'untold secret to my mother'.

Third Prize: Robbi Sher from Highgate School, London, with the poem 'A Secret No Longer'.

Commended: Annie Fan from Rugby School, Warwickshire, with the poem 'How to Invert a Hyperbolic Function'.

Commended: Miranda Green from Wells Cathedral School, Somerset , with the poem 'Corner Table in Tom's Cafe'.

Commended: Ziqi Yan from Westminster School, London , with the poem 'The Mermaid'.

First Prize: Ella Standage from Alleyn's School, London, with the poem 'rosetta'.

Second Prize: Annie Fan from Rugby School, Warwickshire, with the poem 'Qianling Stele'.

Third Prize: Rachel Oyawale from Woldingham High School, Surrey, with the poem 'If I Gave You A Stone'.

Commended: Sofia Al-Hussaini from Bristol Grammar Scholl, with the poem 'The Millstone'.

Commended: Flora Barber from Malvern St James, Worcestershire, with the poem 'Snowdrops'.

Commended: Freya Gray Stone from Maynard School, Devon, with the poem 'I am a river'.

First Prize: Ashani Lewis from The Tiffin Girls' School, London, with the poem 'Flowers From The Dark'.

Second Prize: Safah Ahmed from Newham Collegiate Sixth Form Centre, London, with the poem 'Accent'.

Third Prize: Sophia West from Oxford High School, with the poem 'The Awakening'.

Commended: Natasha Blinder from South Hampstead High School, London, with the poem 'Nine Days'.

Commended: Grace Fraser from Oundle School, Cambridgeshire, with the poem 'UFO Beach Abduction'.

Commended: Ed Pryor from Hartismere High School, Suffolk, with the poem 'Driving Lesson'.

First Prize: Isla Anderson from Woldingham School, Surrey, with the poem 'The Forensics of Salt-Licking'.

Second Prize: Mark Thomas from Hampton School, Middlesex, with the poem 'Fusion'.

Third Prize: Lewis Harrington from Wilson's School, Wallington, Surrey, with the poem 'Firewood'.

Commended: Jeremiah Ovenden from Torquay School, Devon, with the poem 'The Building Blocks of Life'.

Commended: Matt Ward from The Gryphon School, Dorset, with the poem 'Purblind'.

Commended: Andrew Wells from Howard of Effingham School, Surrey, with the poem 'Closed Door'.

First Prize: Dominic Hand from Magdalen College School, Oxford, with the poem 'Annunciation'.

Second Prize: Sam Buckton from Rudolf Steiner School, Hertfordshire, with the poem 'Hell-of-an-Island'.

Third Prize: Masha Voyles from Charterhouse, Surrey, with the poem 'Bat Child Found!'

Commended: Charlie Holmes from George Heriot's School, Edinburgh, with the poem 'Voyager'.

Commended: Jessica Matthews from Coleg Gwent Crosskeys Campus, Caerphilly, with the poem 'Current Affairs'.

Commended: Alexander Shaw from King's Priory School, Tyne and Wear, with the poem 'How to Prepare for Bad News'.

Commended: Phoebe Stuckes from West Somerset College, with the poem 'Sciamachy'.

First Prize: Afza (Ali) Awad from Oxford Spires Academy, with the poem 'Origins'.

Second Prize: Sarah Fletcher from The American School in London, with the poem 'Kraut Girl'.

Third Prize: Erin Tunney from De Lisle Catholic Science College, Leicestershire, with the poem 'The Devil'.

Commended: Luke van den Barselaar from Colyton Grammar School, Devon, with the poem 'Research'.

Commended: Kathryn Cussons from St Paul's Girls' School, London, with the poem 'Investigation Details: Echo and Narcissus'.

Commended: Eva Wallace from Strathearn School, Belfast, with the poem 'Swimming in Loch Súilí (The Lake of Shadows)'.

First Prize: Sarah Fletcher from The American School in London, with the poem 'Papa's Epilogue'.

Second Prize: Bethan Smith from South Essex College, with the poem 'Balloon-song'.

Third Prize: Millie Guille from St Bartholomew' School, Berkshire, with the poem 'Maiden Voyage'.

Commended: Lucy Hely-Hutchinson from Benenden School, Kent, with the poem 'Postcards'.

Commended: Hannah Tran from Dalriada Grammar School, Co. Antrim, with the poem 'The Sirens Tell their Tale'.

Commended: Jack Whitehead from Wells Cathedral School, Somerset, with the poem 'The Water Boatman from Veules-Les-Roses'.

First Prize: Elizabeth Johnson from Farlingaye High School, Suffolk, with the poem 'Wires'.

Second Prize: Jack Westmore from Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College, London, with the poem 'Shipbreakers'.

Third Prize: Abigail Richards from King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls, Birmingham, with the poem 'Simple'.

Commended: James Browning from Wells Cathedral School, Somerset, with the poem 'How Brando is Famous'.

Commended: Thomas Fraser from Harrow School, Middlesex, with the poem 'Very Simply the Sound it Makes'.

Commended: Molly Underwood from The Perse Upper School, Cambridge, with the poem 'The Breaking Day'.

First Prize: Emily Harrison from Cirencester College, Gloucestershire, with the poem 'Love has no Larynx'.

Second Prize: Katie Woods from John Taylor High School, Staffordshire, with the poem 'Selkie'.

Third Prize: Megan Owens from Farlingaye High School, Suffolk, with the poem 'Jane Loudon'.

Commended: Julia Goroszeniuk from St Paul's Girls' School, London, with the poem 'A Portrait Painted Scarfless'.

Commended: Hugo Havranek from St Paul's School, London, with the poem 'Sign Language'.

Commended: Jamie Sutherland from Winchester College, Hampshire, with the poem 'Dear Dad'.

First Prize: Timothy Carson from Sullivan Upper School, Belfast, with the poem 'Is Life Likely?'

Second Prize: Iona Twiston-Davies from Matthew Arnold School, Oxford, with the poem 'Grey Mile'.

Third Prize: Paul Merchant from Tonbridge School, Kent, with the poem 'Three Guesses'.

Commended: Bethany Aitman from St Paul's Girls' School, London, with the poem 'Contact'.

Commended: Emma Jourdan from St Paul's Girls' School, London, with the poem 'Evidence'.

Commended: Sophie Stephenson-Wright from St Paul's Girls' School, London, with the poem 'Villanelle'.

Commended: Charlotte Turner from Varndean College, Brighton, with the poem 'Doubt'.

First Prize: Emily Middleton from The King's School, Macclesfield, with the poem 'The Five Stages'.

Second Prize: Ashley McMullin from The Sixth Form College, Colchester, with the poem 'Journey to Hilly Country'.

Third Prize: Nina Bahadur from St Paul's Girls' School, London, with the poem 'Heat'.

Commended: Charlotte Geater from Northgate High School, Ipswich, with the poem 'We Beasts'.

Commended: Richard O'Brien from Bourne Grammar School, Lincolnshire, with the poem 'Texting in Church'.

Commended: Amelia Penny from South Hampstead High School, London, with the poem 'Quickening'.

Commended: Anna Savory from Fort Pitt Grammar School, Kent, with the poem 'Sestina 102; 26'.

First Prize: Charlotte Runcie from St Albans High School for Girls, with the poem 'Flying Fish'.

Second Prize: Annie Katchinska from St Dunstan's College, London, with the poem 'Margarita after Mikhail Bulgakov'.

Third Prize: Sophie Mackintosh from Ysgol y Preseli, Pembrokeshire, with the poem 'On Illumination and Reasons to Fly'.

Commended: Rees Arnott-Davies from Pimlico School, London, with the poem 'Gallus Domesticus'.

Commended: Alice Howlett from St George's School for Girls, Edinburgh, with the poem 'Before Dawn'.

Commended: Laura Marsh from Redborne Upper School, Ampthill, with the poem 'Missiles'.

First Prize: Colette Sensier from Varndean College, Brighton, with the poem 'Country House Communion'.

Second Prize: Alice Malin from Shrewsbury Sixth Form College, Shropshire, with the poem 'Fire at the Morecambe Bay Pleasure-Dome, March 1917'.

Third Prize: Alice Alexandre from The Godolphin and Latymer School, London, with the poem 'Private Property'.

Commended: David Devanny from Bradford Grammar School, West Yorkshire, with the poem 'The House'.

Commended: Charlotte Geater from Westbourne High School, Ipswich, with the poem 'The Tower'.

Commended: Julia Rampen from James Gillespie's High School, Edinburgh, with the poem 'My Grandmother's House'.

First Prize: Eleanor Williams from The Lady Eleanor Holles School, Middlesex, with the poem 'Gravity'.

Second Prize: Craig Farrell from Glasgow, with the poem 'The Fall'.

Third Prize: Miranda Cichy from St Francis' College, Hertfordshire, with the poem 'The Undertaker'.

Commended: Francesca Beasley from Wallington High School for Girls, Surrey, with the poem 'The Perimeters of Gravity'.

Commended: Rebecca Hawkes from Ranelagh School, Berkshire, with the poem 'Newton's Dream'.

Commended: Shin Woo Kang from Prior Park College, Bath, with the poem 'Thank You',

First Prize: Katherine Hindley from South Hampstead High School, London, with the poem 'Sunrise in Egypt'.

Second Prize: Nancy Freeman from Christ the King Sixth Form College, London, with the poem 'this morning'.

Third Prize: Laura Tisdall from Hayesfield Girls' School, Bath, with the poem 'Resurrection'.

Commended: Caroline Bird from Lady Eleanor Holles School, Middlesex, with the poem 'The Softness of the Morning'.

Commended: Joanna Moorman from Coleg Gwent Crosskeys Campus, Caerphilly, with the poem 'Early Morning'.

Commended: Helen Mort from Brookfield Community School Chesterfield, with the poem 'Matins'.

First Prize: Aruna Nair from Olchfa School, Swansea, with the poem 'The Passport'.

Second Prize: Wing Ying Chow from Canford School, Dorset, (poem untitled).

Third Prize: Hannah Briggs from Ilkley Gramma School, West Yorkshire, with the poem 'Pilgrimes with Passports'.

Commended: Sarah Henderson from Dumfries High School, Scotland, with the poem 'Recognition'.

Commended: Tim Smith-Laing from Tonbridge School, Kent, with the poem 'The Passport'.

Commended: James Williams from King Edward's School, Bath, with the poem 'Burgundy'.

First Prize: Anna Lewis from The Blue School, Somerset, with the poem 'Into the Distance'.

Second Prize: Dhruv Sookhoo from Emmanuel College, Gateshead, with the poem 'Falling From, Rising To...'

Third Prize: Thom Glover from St Paul's School, London, with the poem 'After the Rain'.

Commended: Christopher Edwards from Churston Ferrers Grammar School, Devon, (poem untitled).

Commended: Kezia Gaitskell from Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls, Hertfordshire, with the poem 'Flooded'.

Commended: Holly Patterson from Ash Manor School, Surrey, with the poem 'The Flood'.

First Prize: Rebecca Dudley from High Storrs School, South Yorkshire, with the poem 'Blue'.

Second Prize: Mairi Brewis from St Paul's Girls' SChool, London, with the poem 'Birthday Turtle'.

Third Prize: Felicity Marks from Beaconsfield High School, Buckinghamshire, with the poem 'Shelling Blue Eggs'.

Commended: Eve Blair from Putney High School, London, with the poem 'Blue'.

Commended: Swithun Cooper from Reading High School, Berkshire, with the poem 'Battered in Blue'.

Commended: Charlotte Dickens from East Norfolk Sixth Form College, with the poem 'Fever-Headed on Ninety-Fourth Street'

Commended: Isabella Mead from Long Road Sixth Form College, Cambridge, with the poem 'Merging the Colour'.