Austin schools celebrate poetry; Students read winning poetry entries from Eberhart contest
Published 10:15 am Wednesday, April 15, 2015
I.J. Holton Intermediate School student Ciara Earl recites her poem in front of a packed crowd at the annual Night For Our Poets Tuesday at the Hormel Historic Home. Trey Mewes/trey.mewes@austindailyherald.com
Childhood memories can be at times embarrassing, at times inspiring, and at times fodder for good poetry, as Ellis Middle School eighth-grader Sarah Bachmeier found out.
Bachmeier’s poem, “A Colorful Calcium Carbonate City,” based on an imaginative game she and her sister would play, earned her a place among Austin Public Schools’ top poets Tuesday night during the annual Night With Our Poets, the end result of the district’s Richard Eberhart Poetry Contest.
“It’s a great opportunity for students,” David Wolff, the district’s gifted and talented coordinator, said. “There’s an affective part to it, where the kids can have a means to express their ideas, their thoughts, their emotions in a more creative manner and then have their creativity recognized in a public manner.”
This year, 24 students were chosen out of 315 entries districtwide to share their poetry at the Hormel Historic Home. Students read their winning poems to a room filled with more than 100 people, among them poet Sharon Chmeilarz, this year’s featured poet sponsored by the Friends of the Austin Public Library.
Ellis Middle School student Steven Conradt recites his poem in front of a packed crowd at the annual Night For Our Poets Tuesday at the Hormel Historic Home.
Trey Mewes/trey.mewes@austindailyherald.com
Bachmeier didn’t know about the contest last year, but she thought she would enter a poem she wrote during a Language Arts poetry unit when she heard about the competition.
“I thought, why not?” she said.
The contest is sponsored each year by the Austin Public Education Foundation and coordinated by the gifted and talented education program in Austin. Contest winners receive a cash award of $25 (Kindergarten), $50 (Elementary and I.J. Holton Intermediate School), $100 (Ellis Middle School), or $200 (Austin High School).
Eberhart was an Austin native and a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who emerged in the 1930s as a modern stylist. His father was a vice president for the Hormel Meat Packing Company during Eberhart’s childhood.
The Eberhart Family Poetry Contest began in 2005 when Eberhart’s children established the contest to honor their parents. The Eberhart family donated the endowment funds necessary to generate income for the annual contest awards.
“It’s very cool, just to think there was a local poet here, and I grew up here, and that his family still wants something for his hometown,” Bachmeier said.
Richard Eberhart Poetry Contest finalists
Woodson
No. 1 — “My House” by Aubrey Ruzek
“Lexi’s Cinquain” by Lexi Helgeson
“Stuff My Mom Does” by Madison Graff
Banfield
No. 1 — “Circle Sun” by Claire Bliese
“Washing the Dishes” by Nick Campbell
“Shadows” by Max Larson
Neveln
No. 1 — “A Place for Me” by Cora Feist
“My Best Friend” by Izaak Belden
“Winter” by Ellie Lunt
Southgate
No. 1 — “Oodles and Doodles” by Kylie Nienow
“Drinking Straw” by Kimberly Folsom
“The Desert” by Sean Marks
Sumner
No. 1 — “My 71/2 Year Old Wishes” by Kalli Emma Potter
“Daddy” by Siara Moreno
“A Poem” by Kaiah Gibson
Holton
No. 1 — “A World Undiscovered” by Ciara Earl
“Snows Breeze” by Alina K. Inthamthirath
“It’s Not My Fault” by Celestina Mia LaVallie
Ellis
No. 1 — “The Colored Calcium Carbonate City” by Sarah Bachmeier
“Wallflower” by McKenzie Pelletier
“The World Through a Crystal Eye” by Steven Conradt
AHS
No. 1 — “The Tiny Café” by Brooke Pazurek
“I” by Sydney Johnson
“Starry Night Seraph” by Sydney Conway
