A TEENAGE poet has had his dark tale selected for a national poetry anthology.

Year 10 pupil Leon Watson, from Fearns Community Sports College, Stacksteads, Bacup will have his poem published in Teen Poets 2017 – Voices of Youth.

The poem 'Greed', which was selected from hundreds of entries submitted from around the country, is a lengthy dark poem and tells the story of one man’s downfall.

Leon, 15, from Weir, said: “I didn’t expect my poem to get picked because I thought it would be too dark.

“Poetry is not something you can be made to write, something has to inspire you.

“You feel something and you want to put it into words and you want to get it out there.”

Performance poet Dave Mellor from The Wirral critiqued Leon’s poem and said: “I was truly stunned by this poem.

"It grabs your attention and the rhyme and the meter hold it together as a force to be reckoned with."

The anthology will be published by Young Writers in November and a free copy will be sent to Fearns.