Like a huge 10 mile thick titanium wall A big sweaty chair A dune-filled desert A giant foaming lager A roast bull dripping A robot in a psycho-type film A very solid oak tree A sweat merchant Arnold Shwarzenegger By Jamie Scott, aged 12, who receives Penguin Modern Poets 1. Submitted by C Yates, Maharishi School, Cobbs Brow Lane, Lathorn, Ormskirk, Lancs, who receives the Poetry Society’s teacher’s newsletter, a quarterly bulletin which includes features on innovative approaches to poetry in the classroom. For Poetry Society events, ring 0171 240 4810.

Jamie’s poem doesn’t pretend to be anything more than an accretion of images forming the huge total of Arnie, whom I shan’t think of in quite the same way again. What makes it work is that not only are the images sharp and surprising in themselves, they come from dramatically varied areas of experience. Yes, we agree at the end, that’s him!