FOR the fifth year running, budding young poets from Bromsgrove are being invited to pit their words against one another for the title of Worcestershire Young Poet Laureate through the ‘Word Up’ competition.

The search is on for the 2016 Young Poet Laureate, and the competition is open to anyone between the ages of 13 and 19 who lives, or attends a school, college, university or youth club in Worcestershire.

People wanting to be in with a chance of taking the title need to submit two poems, one on the subject of ‘light’, and a second on a subject of their choice.

Last year’s Young Poet Laureate Chloe Clarke, said: "It was great when I won the competition because I'd actually entered the year before and got to the final. I thought I'd give it another go and it was great to win a second time round. It proves that if you try again you can get something.

"I have been invited to a number of different places reading and writing poetry and I've been commissioned to write some poetry which means I actually get paid for writing specifically for something."

Councillor Lucy Hodgson, Worcestershire County Council’s cabinet member for localism and communities, added: "People can see poetry as a bit daunting or even obscure but Word Up is designed to show young people this is really not the case. Poetry is a really flexible way of writing and its possibilities are endless. It doesn't matter if you have never tried your hand at poetry before – we want to hear from you and encourage young people to log onto worcestershire.gov.uk/wordup and enter the competition."

The website includes both of Chloe's winning poems titled 'The Soldiers Shadows ' and 'Skinny's Society', as well as an an entry form for this year's competition. Entries can be made until the deadline of midnight on Thursday, December 31.