A young poet from East Ayrshire’s Patna Primary has been invited to meet the Prince of Wales in London.

Robyn McCluskey, 11, who won the council’s Combat Stress war poetry competition, also received pound;125 for her class.

Pupils throughout East Ayrshire had been given a copy of A Private World, an anthology of war poetry by the late David Simpson, a pioneer of prosthetic limbs but also a Second World War veteran. They were asked to put into verse some of their own thoughts about war. The competition was used to publicise Combat Stress, a charity for veterans who have suffered mental health problems after returning from conflict.

Robyn’s winning poem, “Poppies”:

Poppies are beautiful in so many ways,

poppies are in bloom for so many days,

Poppies all over the grass so green,

poppies so lovely some not seen,

Poppies to remember, so many gone,

poppies to remember stars that shone,

Poppies grow through the bad and the good,

poppies remembering all who stood,

Poppies shining in the night sky,

poppies remembering all who die,

Poppies swaying in the cold dark night,

poppies trying to put all things right,

Poppies crying for all the lives lost,

poppies dying in the night frost,

Poppies showing that they care,

poppies growing everywhere,

Poppies standing still in the grass,

poppies smiling at all that pass.