THE Harlow Poetry Open Competition is a joint initiative between Harlow Creates, Harlow Museum and Essex Libraries. The competition is open to everyone aged 7 years and over who lives, learns or works in Harlow.

Whether new to writing or more experienced, all were encouraged to submit up to three poems each on the theme of memory. The competition was timed to coincide with World Poetry Day on the 21st of March. Waterstones Harlow contributed to the prizes for winners.

108 entries
Three categories

Three free writing workshops facilitated by Imogen Wade

Judges:
Imogen Wade, Winner of the National Poetry Competition 2023 and author of Girl, Swooning (Corsair, 2026)

Carmella de Keyser, Founder of the Harlow Poetry Circle and author of The Liminal Light of the Night (Hedgehog Poetry Press, 2025)

18+ Category
Winner
Son by Stuart Springthorpe

Highly Commended
Building an Archive by Sumana Begum
Memory of Early Morning Cambridge by Gill Gould

11 – 17 Category
Winner
Rust by Betsy Wilson

Highly Commended
Memories are a galaxy of stars by Paige Bedford
Wish you were still here with me by Mason Norris

7 – 10 Category
Winner
Memory by Nelly O’Leary

Highly Commended
The Little Memories by Sophia Koumis
Memories by Noreen Okuo

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Winner 18+ category

Son

When they rose you above the head,
Inside I wept
As you lay wide like a bundle of mucus and twitching muscle,
Finger spasms pushing out to grab me and my world
As eyes widened and your shameful stare calmed me as if to say
‘I am here now.’
And then it broke.
Like some Autumn rain on some field of crows –
And you kicked and screamed and felt and pushed, as I attempted
Some pathetic attempt at playing God of creation, to bundle you into
something I knew as your mother lay exhausted.
Then you curled that soft palm around me – rolled the heavy stone
and lit the room as of angels telling me that I had been forgiven.

By Stuart Springthorpe

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Winner 11 – 17 Category

Rust

Secrets hold memories,
Like rusty graves in cemeteries.
Deep down below the angels cry,
As all our old memories die.

When all hope is lost,
We forget our past,
And hope for our future too fast.
So, when creating your memories,
Take pleasure and time,
so they can be our lifeline.

When we rust. 

By Betsy Wilson

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Winner 7 – 10 Category

Memory

Memory hums in a quiet rhyme,
A looping song that bends with time.
It keeps what’s lost, misplaced dates,
but guards the hearts of moments great.
Two rabbits lived where clover grew
one named Isla, calm and true.
The other happy – quick and bright,
A blur of joy from morn till night.
My memory of you will never end,
so will my heart and I can’t pretend.
Family lives inside our days
in quiet looks, in old time ways
in voices calling from the past
in moments gone but holding fast.
Memory is where our friends will stay,
long after moments slip away
it keeps their laughter, not the date,
their voices light, their footsteps late.

By Nelly O’Leary

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