Poetry

Metro Poetry Competition 2024 

The theme was 'care'. All poems submitted were judged by two Nexus representatives along with poet Jane Burn and Poetry Book Society Manager Alice Mullen. 

The winner of our competition was Abigail Ottley, with a poem titled Taking Care. 

Runners up were

Thea Smiley - Mexican Oranges

Ama Bolton - Survivor

Tracy Davidson - Mother Daughter Time 

 You can see the winning poems here, or on the platforms at Longbenton Metro Station. 
 

Previous competitions

In 2023, the theme was 'Journey'. You can see the winning poems here. All poems submitted were judged by two Nexus representatives along with poet Kris Johnson and Poetry Book Society Manager Alice Mullen.  

In 2022, the theme was 'Home'. You can see the winning poems here. All poems submitted were judged by two Nexus representatives along with poets John Challis and Anna Woodford.

In 2021, the theme was 'Winter'. You can see the winning poems here. All poems submitted were judged by two Nexus representatives along with a representative of the Poetry Book Society and poet Degna Stone.
 

Poetry on Metro

Longbenton Metro station has become the home of poetry on Metro - with four poems on display for over a million customers who use the station every year. 

People don’t expect to see art and poetry in public places like train stations, but Metro already has a long history of displaying art on the network, and the poetry on display expands on that. 

We hope the poems displayed at Longbenton will entertain, surprise and inspire you.
 

Royal Literary Fund

The first poems displayed, in July 2021, reflecting on the pandemic, were the result of a partnership with Nexus and Royal Literary Fund Fellows at Newcastle and York Universities. Read more about the partnership, and how it came about, here. And see the poems (2020, Clap, Metro View, Vaccine) in poster form attached below.