A British schoolgirl has become the 13th foreign winner of a Japanese tea company's poetry competition with her ode to a newly cut lawn in autumn.
Gracie Starkey, a 14-year old student at Wycliffe College, Gloucestershire, submitted the poem in the English-language category with the rest of her Japanese class following a workshop with haiku poet Paul Conneally last October.
Walking across the school lawn with her friends, a flash of inspiration led to the words: "Freshly mown grass/ clinging to my shoes/ my muddled thoughts." Gracie was among more than 18,000 entrants to Ito En's annual competition.