PRIMARY pupils are being urged to get creative and take part in the city's annual poetry competition.

Lord Provost Eva Bolander and Glasgow Poet Laureate Jim Carruth launched the event with help from youngsters at Anderston primary.

Ms Bolander's poetry prize for schools is encouraging primary seven youngsters to submit a poem on the theme 'Looking forward - looking back.'

She said: "Poetry is such a personal creative process and I am really looking forward to reading the submissions.

"Children have such honesty and few inhibitions and it shines through in their words.

"I am confident they will astonish, surprise and move the judging panel in equal measure as well as raise a few laughs."

Jim Carruth's latest work Black Cart draws on his upbringing in the farmlands of Renfrewshire and after 18 years in the making is a collection devoted to rural Scotland.

He said: "I believe we are all born poets with a wonderful appreciation of rhythm and rhyme from an early age.

"That is when I first fell in love with poetry and that love has grown as an adult. I am really looking forward to reading poems from all the young voices across this great city."

The closing date for entries is December 15 and schools will submit their three best poems.

The winner will be invited to visit the City Chambers to meet the Lord Provost, his or her class will get a visit from the Poet Laureate and the winner will also get tickets to the Wee Write Festival.