Strathclyde Passenger Transport is emulating the GPO - sponsor of the famous 1935 documentary Night Mail, for which WH Auden wrote the opening lines: “This is the Night Mail crossing the borderBringing the cheque and the postal order” - by nurturing the writing of poetry.

The second Bang on Bard! poetry competition for Glasgow children and young people was launched last week by competition judge and SPT poet-in- residence John Rice at Partick Subway station, where he was joined by pupils from Hyndland Primary. He has been working with Glasgow pupils on a range of poetry, drama, storytelling and creative writing projects since the residency began in August 2008.

This year, there will be a new prize of pound;100 in book tokens for the school which submits the most consistently high standard of work. The competition has also been extended to include college students aged 19 years and under. There will be the usual first, second and third prizes (pound;50, pound;25 and pound;15 respectively) for age ranges 5-8, 9-12, 13-15 and 16-19 years.

Entrants have to write a poem of no more than 25 lines on a subject of their choice.

www.spt.co.ukculturepoetry.