Gracie Starkey collects prize in Tokyo after her grass poem is chosen from more than 18,000 English-language entries

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

A British schoolgirl inspired by an autumnal stroll across a newly mown lawn has become the first non-Japanese person to win a prestigious haiku competition.

Gracie Starkey, 14, from Gloucestershire, beat more than 18,000 entries to take the prize in the English-language section of the contest organised annually by a Japanese tea company.

Starkey flew to Tokyo to pick up her prize, telling friends she was off on holiday to a remote spot in Wales because she had to keep her win secret.

The teenager was given the task of writing a haiku after a poet led a Saturday morning workshop at her school, Wycliffe College in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, where she had been learning Japanese.

As she and a friend took a walk after the workshop, grass cuttings stuck to her footwear and the haiku came to her:

Freshly mown grass

clinging to my shoes

my muddled thoughts

Her poem – a non-traditional form that does not follow the classic five-seven-five syllable pattern – was entered into the competition organised by the multinational Ito En, first held in 1989. For the first 27 years the English-language section was won by Japanese people.

Two million people take part in the competition and this year there were 18,248 entries in English. The English category was judged by the haiku poet Tsunehiko Hoshino and Adrian Pinnington, an expert in Japanese literature based at Waseda University in Tokyo.

Pinnington said of Gracie’s entry: “This is a very unique and fresh poem. The author is walking across a freshly cut lawn and some grass gets on to the bottom of their shoes.

“The subtly differently coloured blades of grass create a random pattern. Thinking about life while walking across the lawn, the author comes to think of it as reflecting their own complicated thinking. The expression ‘muddled thoughts’ is especially skilfully used.”

Gracie said she was amazed when she heard she had won and had been invited to Tokyo.

“I could only tell my mum and dad and sister and my Japanese teacher at Wycliffe College,” said Gracie. “I told my friends that I was going to Wales for a week and that I wouldn’t have any phone reception.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Gracie’s haiku on a bottle of green tea. Photograph: Wycliffe College/PA

When she arrived at the Imperial Palace Hotel for the ceremony, Gracie was swamped by press photographers and camera crews. “Everyone was taking pictures and there were at least 20 camera crews and photographers. It was amazing.”

As well as winning the trip, Gracie’s poem was rendered by a famous calligrapher, and she received a cash prize. Most thrillingly, her poem is being reproduced on thousands of bottles of green tea.

Gracie and her Japanese teacher at Wycliffe, Satoko Suzui, gave a speech at the ceremony explaining the inspiration for her haiku. “I spoke a little in Japanese explaining who I was, my age and about my school and friends, then I spoke in English with my teacher translating,” Gracie said.

Previously she had little interest in poetry. “This has certainly made me more interested in poetry and in Japanese culture.”