The sea is a common enough subject for po-etry - but this is an unusually careful and clever treatment of it. The writer has clearly looked at the sea for a long time, and thought hard about it, which is the first step to writing a good poem about anything. The simile works - waves really do look like herded animals - and is sustained throughout the poem, right to the conclusion where the wave-creatures seem to become mixed with real animals. I chose this poem by a whisker over one by Nick’s twin brother. He actually had an even better first line: “The sea is like a boxer!”

Nick Drewitt, aged 10, (left)receives Two’s Company by Jackie Kay (Puffin). Submitted by Wenda Kiddle, class teacher of St Michael’s C of E JMI School, Herts, who receives a set of Poetry Society posters with teachers’ notes. For Poetry Society events, ring 0171 240 2133.

The Sea

The Sea is like a huge stampede,

Running away from the wind.

Crash! Crunch!

As the clumsy animals fall about each other

They jump over obstacles,

And then rejoin the group.

Like the waves lapping and splashing,

The stampede will eventually stop,

When the chaser is satisfied,

Like the wind, turning into a breeze,

And then when night comes, the sea is calm

Like the herd grazing on green grass,

In the morning the animals awake,

Like the sea starting to ripple,

The animals stir and eat the grass,

Like the sea beginning to erode the cliffs.

NICK DREWITT.