Today is National Poetry Day!

To shine a light on this annual celebration of verse, we recently hosted a very special poetry competition in conjunction with BookTrust, the UK’s leading children’s reading charity.

Thanks to all of you who entered your finance and money-based sonnets, limericks, haiku, and poems – you helped us raise a lovely sum for a great cause. If you’d like to make a small donation, please head to our Just Giving page – any contribution is much appreciated.

To ensure complete fairness, we anonymised the poems and sent them over to Anna McKerrow, Reviews Editor at BookTrust, to judge. Anna has reviewed all of your entries, and so, without further ado, here are the three winning poems.

Winner of a £50 book token – “Money Is…” by Matt Batsman

Money is an idea, it exists in our minds.
It is an infinite, endless compilation of maths and sums and numbers and figures and charts and
graphs.

Money is alive. We breathe life into
money like air into lungs.
It is fuel, it makes the world go round.

Money is a game. It has a landscape for playing,
it has rules, and people keeping score.
It has winners and it has losers.

Money is cold. It is unemotional, void of feeling,
hard metal and rounded plastic. It does not love, nor hate,
nor make choices.

Money is time. It is eternal shifting sands, rising
and falling constantly, again and again. Money is
each passing moment.

Money is nothing to those who have it,
And everything to those who do not.

Anna says: “I like its philosophical concept, enjoyable pace, rhythm and imagery and good use of line breaks. I like the way it thinks about all the different things money might be, and concludes with a meaningful thought.”

Well done, Matt – your prize is on the way!

Winner of a £25 book token – “Extended sonnet about a vacationing financial industry manager oblivious of personal finance matters” by Martin Gelnar

I’m off, and as always on any vacation
I’ll be thinking hard about cost/income ratios,
How to grow client touch points (won’t go into detail…),
How to awe the whole bunch from insti to retail.

How to beat the most nasty benchmark huggers
And outdo foreign boutique asset muggers.
Will check if some yield curves need a good licking,
And if overpaid stock pickers need some unpicking.

Five days from now, when I’m back full of rapture
I’ll present a grand plan for net-money capture.
The ultimate EDGE I will thus deliver,
The audience will love it (although some may shiver).

There’s only one worry – my wife, kids, and bison
Tell me to quit what they call Corporate Prison
They say: “Get a life and emerge from your basement,
Start thinking of us as your proper investment!”

So back in the office, I’ll holler: “Well, hi, Nance!”
(Let PAs take care of your personal finance),
“Use my stash of Bitcoins by 6 pm, will ya,
To buy us a ten-bedroom home in Sevilla.”

Anna says: “I liked its humour, specificity about finance and creative rhyming.”

Congratulations, Martin – we’ll be in touch to arrange delivery of your prize.

Winner of a £25 book token – “My limerick about money” by Aimee Bray (age 9)

Money, money it’s everywhere
Earn a bit here give a bit there
Spend and save
Carries on ‘til the grave
I wish you could magic it out of thin air.

Anna says: “It’s catchy, nicely paced and constructed, and with a relatable end line!”

Well done, Aimee – your book token is on the way!

Thanks to everyone who took part and who supported this great cause.