National Poetry Competition

Now in its 34th year, the Poetry Society’s National Poetry Competition is one of the world’s biggest and most prestigious poetry competitions. 

The judges this year are Colette Bryce, John Glenday and Jackie Kay. 

Winners include both established and emerging poets and for many the prize has proved an important milestone in their professional careers. Add your name to a roll-call of winners that includes Carol Ann Duffy, Ian Duhig, Philip Gross, Jo Shapcott and Tony Harrison – and have your work published in the Poetry Society’s leading international journal, Poetry Review. 

The prizes are: £5,000 for the overall winner, £2,000 for the second, £1,000 for the third, with seven commendations of £100. 

The deadline is 31^st October. 

Enter online or download an entry form at www.poetrysociety.org.uk.

http://poetrysociety.org.uk/content/competitions/npc/

You can also read past winners there to get an idea of the competition level (high)
They have a useful FAQ that has answers such as:

Do line spaces between stanzas count as part of the 40 line limit? What about titles and dedications?

The forty line limit applies only to the written lines of the poem, not the lines between stanzas. Titles and dedications are not counted as lines either.

Does having a poem on my own blog count as website publication?

Yes.

So no Poetry Bus Poems. Unless you re-title them I suppose.