World Poetry Day World Poetry Day was celebrated in fine style at Harrow Arts Centre on Saturday.

The finalists of Harrow's World Poetry Day competition came together for an afternoon of poetry, music and dance.

From over one hundred entries, twenty-four poems were selected. The winning entries in the three age groups were based on not only content but also performance - and performance was the word of the day.

Honorary Alderman Keith Toms was in attendance, not out of duty but for the pleasure of the poetry and he and his son both recited poetry which was warmly received by the audience.

Alongside the poets, we had a Bollywood dancer and a troop of baton twirling girls who were cute as buttons. Later we were treated to two songs by Talia Welka, accompanied by Sam on the guitar, and she’s a talent to watch.

Further along the afternoon, one of our younger poets, Lara, delighted the audience with songs from Oliver and Les Miserables. Mike Davidson played piano while the audience settled down and again during the final judging.

As for the winning entries, in the 7/11 age group, Sukriti Bisht was one of our winners (receiving vouchers from La Dolce Vita in Hatch End). In the 12/17 age group, Amee Mehta was a winner and Karishma Desai scooped a prize amongst the adults.

All the entrants received a certificate and thanks to Morrisons, the children were given Easter eggs. Costco supplied bottles of water and The White House and Sea Pebbles fish and chip shops, Rainbeau Chocolates, Rush Hair, Steve’s Unisex Hair and Geezers Hair also kindly donated prizes.

And now, together with Carillion who run Harrow Libraries, we’ve plans afoot - so watch this space!