Wallace Stevens once said, "poetry is a response to the daily necessity of getting the world right."

It is, as he correctly observed, a basic need that has existed for as long as we've had the means to communicate our thoughts to one another.

But amid today's cultural maelstrom, where the loudest or the brashest frequently get noticed, poetry's subtle shades can sometimes end up
being washed away.

Penelope Shuttle, who is judging this year's Yorkshire Open Poetry Competition, disagrees.

"I think the increasing number of poetry festivals means people are getting used to hearing poetry read in public, which has to be a good thing."

So despite the facile clamour for celebrity gossip magazines and the feverish attempts of film and TV to grab our attention, she believes poetry is alive and well in the UK.

"You can go to a poetry festival almost every week
in this country if you want to," she says.

"And rather than close the door on poetry I think the internet, through online forums, has helped make it accessible to a whole new audience who perhaps in the past might have thought it wasn't for them.

"I know that I'm in touch with far more poets now than I was 10 years ago."

Shuttle, a Hawthornden Fellow and tutor at the renowned Arvon Foundation, is no stranger to the pressures of adjudicating, having been among this year's judges for the National Poetry Competition.

"I've just been judging a competition in Italy where the standard was remarkably good and I expect the Yorkshire poetry competition will be just as difficult to judge,
if not harder."

The competition, sponsored by the Yorkshire Post, is now in its 24th year and is regarded as the region's most prestigious poetry competition, attracting entries from all over the world.

Shuttle believes this is a great sign that modern poetry is flourishing.

"There's been a huge increase in the number of creative writing courses and poetry competitions up and down the country, which has really pushed up the standard," she says.

Shuttle, described by renowned US poet Anne Stevenson as "one of the finest writers living in Britain today," has been a poet for the past 40 years. She formed a fruitful writing partnership with her late husband, Peter Redgrove, which included the ground-breaking feminist work The Wise Wound. She is also a prolific novelist and non-fiction writer.

She says she became immersed in poetry as a teenager, and believes
it is still the most intimate art form.

"If you're travelling on a train, it's much easier to read a poem than it is to try and wade through War and Peace. Poetry uses ordinary speech and gives individuals their own voice.

"We're bombarded by information and people giving us advice and it's very easy to feel overwhelmed. But sitting down with a pen and paper, or in front of your computer screen, and writing a poem is something anyone can do. You don't need any qualifications to write poetry."

Sadly, however, while biographies of failed Big Brother contestants and other celebrity mannequins sell by the lorryload, poetry collections are deemed best-sellers if a couple of thousand copies are shifted. Shuttle, though, is far from despondent about the situation.

"Book sales are just the tip of the iceberg. There are poetry readings, workshops and teaching jobs at universities."

Poetry competitions too, she says, are a good way of spotting new talent.

"They are great for opening doors of opportunity. If you win or get short-listed it raises your profile, and it can help get a collection published.

"When the Arvon competition started, Ted Hughes was one of the
judges and the first winner was Andrew Motion, who's gone on to become Poet Laureate and a wonderful ambassador for poetry."

Last year's competition, won by Carole Bromley, from York, attracted more than 1,500 entries. Shuttle is relishing the prospect of reading the work of the latest batch of contenders. "I expect there will be a lot of good poems, and it's lovely to do because you could discover a major new talent. So for me it's a bit like unwrapping Christmas presents."

"There's a theory that says if you're really serious about becoming a poet or an artist, you should spend 10,000 hours practicing, which works out at four hours every day, for seven years. But I don't think people need to go to those lengths before entering the competition."


How to enter the competition

There are a total of 19 prizes for this year's competition. Penelope Shuttle is the sole adjudicator.

First prize £500 (plus publication of the winning poem in the Yorkshire Post)

Second prize £250

Third prize £100

The Leslie Richardson Award, given to a poet who works in Yorkshire, worth £50. There are 10 prizes of £15 and five further ones of £10. The closing date for entries is July 31. The winner will be announced on October 18 at a special poetry day, featuring Penelope Shuttle, held in York.

For full details of the competition please send an SAE to: YOPC 2008, 32 Spey Bank, Acomb Park, York, YO24 2UZ.