Last week Eastleigh pupils were given the option of coming along to the poetry class I was offering as part of the Daily Echo Kids Verse 2003 competition or doing another activity. Overwhelmingly, they opted for poetry.

When I walked in the classroom of Norwood Primary's Year 1 and 2s, their faces were excited. "We're doing poetry!" they said excitedly to each other.

What happens in the years between this effortless enthusiasm for poetry and the embarrassment about the subject in adulthood?

These children, some of whom were so young they were still practising their handwriting and weren't sure of their spelling, were not intimidated by a poem on the page.

The way that words fit together, their sounds and shapes, these are the things that make language a thing you can play with. Perhaps this is why children so naturally enjoy poetry - language is another form of play to them, until informed otherwise by teachers or the outside world, who at some point tell them it is time to get serious.

On my visits to schools as part of Kids Verse, I have found that one of the children's favourite poems is Lewis Carrol's Jabberwocky. This is a nonsense poem, and kids love it. They find its inventiveness funny, and are unperturbed by it not making sense. But then, young people are the ones changing and inventing the language for all of us.

You only need to look at the way texting on mobile phones has changed the way many of us write and speak.

Texting itself is a kind of challenge to language in the way that poetry is. How do you say all you need to in just 164 characters? You get creative in response to such a challenge.

Adults may not like the hybrid of letters, numbers and symbols that result, but that is a reinvention of language. A reinvention of language is one of the things that poetry is about.

Kids Verse 2003 is open to every child in every school in the region and gives youngsters a chance to show off their creativity.

We're looking for the best young poets in our region and there are prizes for winners and their schools. If your school hasn't entered yet, make sure it does - it's the biggest and best poetry competition the region has ever seen!