6 days ago
Poem on ecology and friendship wins Caterpillar Poetry Prize 2025
'What a joy this was,' Kate Wakeling said of judging the Caterpillar Poetry Prize 2025. The annual prize, run by The Moth, which celebrates its 15th birthday this month, has been judged in the past by Michael Morpurgo and Roger McGough, and shines a much-needed light on poetry written by adults for children.
The winner this year is Laura Theis, with her poem, I complain to my friend who has been turned into a tree. 'There is depth and complexity here – about ecology, about friendship – but this is all worn lightly, and the tone is sustained with great skill and beauty from start to finish," Wakeling said. 'Picking a favourite line is almost impossible but if I had to choose one, I'd plump for 'She greens at me, wistfully', which is such a gorgeous image, expressed with such economy, music and charm. I don't
exactly
know what it means – except I also do. For me, this is the sort of magic that only a poem can accomplish."
Theis grew up in a German town where each street was named after a different fairy tale, and she now lives in Oxford. She writes in English as her second language, for readers of all ages. She has a distinction in creative writing from Oxford University, and her work has been widely anthologised and appears in
Poetry, Oxford Poetry, Rattle, Crannóg, Tyger Tyger, Berlin Lit
and many others. She has been awarded the Alpine Fellowship, the Mogford Prize, the AM Heath Prize, the Live Canon Collection Prize and the Arthur Welton Award from the Society of Authors. She was nominated for the Forward Prize and the SFPA Elgin Award and was a finalist for the Bridport Prize, The National Poetry Competition and the BBC Short Story Prize.
Her most recent books are
A Spotter's Guide To Invisible Things
and
Introduction To Cloud Care
. Her children's debut,
Poems From A Witch's Pocket
, will be published by The Emma Press this September and will contain lots of magic spells, letters, to-do-lists and of course her prizewinning poem.
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'Winning the Caterpillar Poetry Prize is an absolute dream come true!!' Theis said. 'I found out that I had won first prize on my birthday, and it was the best birthday present I could ever have imagined - especially because I'm about to publish my children's debut,
Poems from a Witch's Pocket,
this autumn.
'It felt like a magical stamp of approval for the kind of writing I put in the book, so it has made me extra-happy. Writing and reading poetry for children is such a complete joy, I love it so much, and I have been a fan of
The Caterpillar
for years and have discovered so many wonderful poets through the prize, I still can't believe I have now joined their ranks ..."
I complain to my friend who has been turned into a tree
I complain to my friend
who has been turned into a tree.
You have it so easy.
She greens at me, wistfully.
Do I?
She shakes her branches,
sways towards me.
What makes you think so?
I just envy you, I say.
You're going to live
for hundreds of years now,
with no stress and nothing to worry about.
She drops a leaf on me as if
I'm being stupid.
Not in this city I won't, not in this day and age.
I might even die before you. And as for stress,
how about worrying about winter, and water
too much of it, or too little, and what about soil compaction,
pollution, bug infestations, lice, exposure to road salt,
the construction site right by my roots? What about fires and lightning?
Sometimes the dust on my leaves gets so thick
I can no longer breathe. You know those nightmares
where you are rooted to one spot and can't get away?
Yeah, that's what I thought. I do not sleep now, not ever.
I fling my arms around her, feeling contrite.
Forgive me, I had no idea, I whisper into her bark.
You never asked.
Theis will receive €1,000 and spend a week at Circle of Misse in France, a retreat where creativity takes centre stage – set on the banks of the Thouet River, a tributary of the Loire.
Nicky Hetherington
Second prize is awarded to Nicky Hetherington's poem Dyslexia. Hetherington lives in rural mid-Wales. Her work has been published widely and includes her children's book,
Jack and the Dog Boy
and a poetry pamphlet
Cultivating Caterpillars
. She also produced and edited a small anthology of poetry,
A Spot of Poetry for Kids
, raising money for Children in Need. She has been placed in several competitions, including the Oriel Davies Competition, and this year she was selected to participate in Literature Wales's Speak Back project, developing poetry for performance, from which a video anthology will be produced.
Hetherington often finds inspiration in nature and the countryside and issues of social justice, especially of the marginalised or invisible. Or sometimes just plain nonsense, because, when the world doesn't always make sense, sometimes nonsense is the only sensible response.
'I had been keeping my eyes open for a really funny and surprising poem,' Wakeling said, 'and was so glad to come across this delight. Of course, this poem is also grounded in something thoughtful and perceptive. Through the joyfully absurd imagery at its close, it expresses something very particular and poignant about the challenges of living with dyslexia.
'I especially loved the framing device of the 'dry stone wall'; this slow intricate craft is an excellent metaphor for writing as a whole, while the particular weight and labour of the process also conveys something powerful about dyslexia. And then
bang
, out of nowhere land the squirrels and saucepans. I did a proper lol."
Dyslexia
It's like building a dry stone wall.
Every stone is a different shape and size
so it's really tricky …
to see which ones …
will fit … the gaps.
You try your best,
sorting through your pile of stones
to find the right one ...
for each spot.
Then, when you've finished, someone says,
'That's not a stone,
that's a squirrel,
and that one's a saucepan!
Why are you building a wall
with squirrels and saucepans?'
Lorraine Mariner
Third prize goes to Lorraine Mariner, a librarian at the National Poetry Library in London, for her poem Food Bank. Mariner has published two collections of poetry for adults with Picador,
Furniture
and
There Will Be No More Nonsense
, and has twice been shortlisted in the Forward Prizes and also for the Seamus Heaney Centre Poetry Prize.
Working with the children's books and on school visits and early years Rug Rhymes at the Poetry Library inspired her to start writing poems and picture books for children. She's published her poems for children and young people in
The Dirigible Balloon
,
Paper Lanterns
,
The Toy
and
Tyger Tyger
. She is currently completing her third collection for adults which features poems about her Greek and Irish family history.
'This accomplished sonnet packs a punch through such simple and direct language,' Wakeling said. 'It is powerful and moving in its dignity and precision. The use of a child's voice, so matter of fact, is skilfully handled and I thought the use of form here was especially effective: the poem feels taut and controlled, which reflects its subject very sharply. This was a poem I found myself hankering to return to, and each time I read it again I found another glinting detail of the poet's craft and care, which in turn led me deeper into the poem's meaning and purpose.'
Food Bank
Josie saw me coming out the Food Bank.
I was helping my mum to carry the bags.
On the bus to our flat I couldn't speak
and the silence made Mum sad.
Josie's the coolest kid in class 6B.
She has great hair, I'm jealous of her clothes.
Will she tell the other kids she saw me?
Her mum's a lawyer, they have a pool at home.
Today I told my mum I was poorly
but her thermometer said I was fine for school.
Josie's chatting with her friends like normal,
won't look at me as the class walks to our room.
But on my chair there's a bag of cakes and a note,
'I baked too many, these are for you.'
Wakeling also commended poems by Carole Bromley, Helen Dineen, Victoria Gatehouse, Jemima Laing, Kate O'Brien, Rachel Piercey and Melinda Szymanik.
Alongside The Caterpillar Poetry Prize, The Moth runs three annual literary prizes. The Moth Short Story Prize, judged by Evie Wyld, closes on June 30th; The Moth Nature Writing Prize, judged by Mark Cocker, closes on September 30th, and The Moth Poetry Prize opens again in August.
