Badger said he comes up with a concept and an idea and wants to tell somebody.
"But no one is there, so I write it down," he said.
A competition run by Tararua District libraries, in conjunction with national poetry day, attracted 40 entries, with Forest Fungi the winner and For the Love of Music the people's choice, won by Hayden Macdonald and Amy Phillips respectively.
The competition was judged by Akitio author Muriel Cowan.
Pamela Allen of the Dannevirke Library has just started "to dabble" in poetry.
"Poetry scared me and I didn't understand the structure of poems, but in the last couple of years I've become a bit braver," she said.
"After a health crisis I was given advice to write stuff down and I've now written a couple of poems.
"I think we are all poets and I feel quite liberated by writing something down."
Murray Orchard moved to Dannevirke three months ago and grew up thinking poetry had to rhyme.
"Although I was taught some poetry didn't have to rhyme, I didn't think that was right, so I continued to write rhyming poetry, including limericks.
"I did have a go at writing something which didn't rhyme, but, really, it was an imagination stretch, but I set the scene for people and then they read it a second time and discussed it amongst themselves."
Allie Lundon is currently working on a poem for the politicians.
"Amongst the five pertinent questions I'm asking them are 'have you walked in someone else's shoes? Have you ever wondered where your next meal is coming from?'
"Before any of us vote, we need to ask those questions."
Author Sue McCauley said she tries to avoid poetry.
"It's not my thing," the award-winning fiction writer, journalist and scriptwriter, said.
Sue and her husband, Pat Hammond, live on her family farm in the Waitahora Valley, east of Dannevirke.