Patricia McCarthy took home this year's winning prize at the National Poetry Competition for her poem "Clothes that escaped the Great War", which has been inspired by her late mother's stories about the First World War.

Patricia McCarthy's "Clothes that escaped the Great War" beat 13,040 other entries to win the author and editor of poetry journal "Agenda" this year's prize at the National Poetry Competition. The poem is inspired by stories the author heard from her late mother about the First World War. She recalls her mother telling her about a carthorse that used to take young boys to war and return with only their clothes.

Poets and judges of the competition Vicki Feaver, Nick Laird and WN Herbert said that the unique title of the poem is what struck them at first, but they were later drawn in deeper by the atmosphere the poem created.

"We loved the journey it takes - both literally, as the horse and cart piled high with old work-clothes trundles down the lanes, and metaphorically, as these clothes come to represent the ghosts of all the young men lost in the Great War," said Feaver. "It follows on from the wonderful poems written by poets like Owen and Sassoon about their war experience, to show the grief of the women left behind."

The author herself was very thrilled about winning the $7,600 prize, saying it was "just extraordinary." McCarthy revealed that she's not the kind to enter into competitions and the last one she had taken part in was almost 10 years ago, where she won the runners-up prize. McCarthy also reveals that the award couldn't come at a better timing, as she is really low financially and struggling to make ends meet.

McCarthy is even more thrilled that this poem of hers in particular that won her the award, as it's a small part of "our oral history" and will now live on forever.