Kelly Saiz
Editor-in-Chief
Last Night, Thursday, Apr. 26 student poets, teachers and parents came together for an evening of original poetry readings. The four winners were junior Annie Conover for best poem “Letters Home from Baghdad”, sophomore Tyler Kendall for best imagery in “Grandfather”, senior Jenny Curt for best performance, and senior Olivia Marcus for most artful use of language in an untitled poem.
Honorable mention was also awarded to juniors Lily Citrin, Quinn Gruver, senior Lachlan Lancaster, sophomores Annie Ludtke, Sam Kramer freshman Kevin Kurtzman, sophomore Keaton McAuliffe, and freshman Carrie Owen.
Olivia, who, along with the other four winners, was awarded a $25 gift card to Amazon.com, said she was honored by her win. “It’s really nice of them. I wrote this poem when I was stuck. I love a lot of poems and poets and so I was frustrated because I could never write like them,” she said. “It’s really nice of them to recognize me.”
Sam, who read his poem “A Response to WIlliam Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18” said that he decided to submit his poem to the Poetry Fest to try something new. “I typically dabble a bit in poetry. This was a chance to experiment in a larger venue,” he said.
Others, such as senior Courtney Gallagher, said the biggest incentive to participate was the bonus points from her teacher. Courtney said that the inspiration for her poem “Narcissus” came from another subject. “I took Latin and we did a lot of greek mythology in that class and I like the idea of allusion poems,” she said.
Junior Tim Casavant said that while the extra credit was a benefit of participating, he also wanted to offer up his thoughts in “Vacation” to his peers. “I had a very insightful vision in my poem that I wanted to share,” he said. “My poem was how the nature and I guess the atmosphere can seem very dull but if you take the time to look and tell yourself you’re seeing things for the first time, it’s a lot more enjoyable.”
Courtney said she thought the event was a success. “It’s really nice, they do a really nice job of setting it up. It’s cool that people can come and read poetry,” she said.
Tim agreed. “I thought it was a great event. It is a supportive environment for kids to come and read their poetry,” he said.
