I remember well the first time I entered a poem in a competition.

It was the 1990 Eisteddfod, an annual competition in schools across Wales each year which coincides with St David’s Day at the start of March.

After two days of songs, recitation and dancing, it culminates in the ‘chairing of the bard’ ceremony for the winner of the poetry competition.

And I was delighted to win this great accolade when I was in the last year of Ffynonbedr primary school, in Lampeter, my home town in west Wales.

Since then, my love for poetry has grown and grown. I studied it as part of my Master's degree and my dissertation was a portfolio of poetry.

In my job as a funeral celebrant, I find poetry to be one of the most wonderful blessings in a service. Even if people are not ‘poetry people’, they often find that the words of a poem best express the raw emotions that they are feeling.

They can tug at something deep within us. I prefer families to choose what works for them and I have a little library of poetry that I send to those who have asked for some guidance.

However, I do like to ‘slot’ an extra poem in just before we leave a funeral, as a lasting feeling, words intended to echo in our minds after we have left the chapel.

This might be a famous poem by a famous poet or my own meanderings. One of these is ‘Woodland Prayer’ (see picture).

Writing poetry is wonderful but it is the sharing of this writing with others that is even more wonderful.

When Christina Rosetti sat down at the age of 19 to write one of her most famous poems, Remember, full of beautiful, mournful, evocative language that still pulls at heart strings almost 200 years later, she would have had no idea of the sheer number of souls she would touch with her innermost thoughts.

And this is all part of the reason why we at Shoobridges decided to launch a poetry competition to coincide with National Grandparents Day on October 6.

We have received some brilliant poems from people across our branches in Honiton, Exmouth and Exeter, poems with heart and soul through vivid memories and colourful thoughts. And there is still time to enter your poem!

Just email it to us at info@shoobridgefunerals.co.uk or pop it through the door of one of our offices.

Please include your name and contact details, and your age if you are under 16 years old.