HPPH Poetry Competition

Just as we love cinema in all its forms, we love poetry in all its forms too. Therefore, we are open to any form or style of poetry and can’t wait to read your writing!

Please enter your poem by our birthday – Saturday 02 November, 23:59.

Not sure what to write?

If you love the cinema as much as us, maybe you’d like to write an ode to Hyde Park Picture House? Or, if you had your first date in the cinema, maybe you’d like to write a sonnet or a love poem set here? Or maybe you think the low lighting of our flickering gas lights would make the perfect setting for a spooky poem. Or maybe you’d like to time travel in your poem to a different period in the cinema’s history. Our history page might provide useful inspiration for this. You might like to take on the perspective of someone who might have dropped one of our Treasure Trash Tuesday items found under our floorboards during our recent redevelopment project. You might bring one of your favourite film characters to life for a wander around the cinema. Or you might interpret this prompt completely in your own way - whatever direction you take, we’re looking forward to reading it.

Age categories

Our poetry competition has three different age categories:

Children’s: under 15s.

Young people: 15-19s.

Adults: 20+.

When entering, please specify in the email subject which age category you fit into.

What happens if you win?

There will be a prize for each age category and we will publish your winning poem on our website and celebrate your poem across our social channels. The prize for each age category will be two free cinema tickets, two drinks and a large popcorn.

How to enter

To enter, attach your poem as a document in an email to info@hpph.co.uk with the subject ‘National Poetry Day Competition’ and the relevant age category. Within the body of your email, please include your name, age and contact details.

Entry rules

• You can submit one poem per person.
• Poems must be a maximum of 40 lines (excluding title).
• Must be your own original work.
• Must not have been published previously.
• The closing date for the competition is Saturday 02 November 2024, 23:59.
• Alterations cannot be made to poems once entered.
• Prize winners will be notified by the end of November 2024.
• The copyright of each poem remains with the author. However, authors of the winning poems, by entering the competition, grant Hyde Park Picture House the right in perpetuity to publish and/or broadcast their poems.
• To enter, attach your poem as a document in an email to info@hpph.co.uk with the subject ‘National Poetry Day Competition’ and the relevant age category. Within the body of your email, please include your name, age and contact details.