Poetry filled the air at Austin High School Tuesday night. From wispy poems about the nature of storms to the qualities of hope, the struggles of cancer and the horrors of the Holocaust, poetry was the word as Austin Public School students showcased their talents as finalists of the sixth annual Eberhart Family Poetry contest.

Created by the children of Richard Eberhart, the famous poet who grew up in Austin, the contest rewards students who compose their own poetry.

“I’m proud of myself,” said Caitlin Kaercher, fifth-grader at Neveln Elementary School. Kaercher placed second out of three of her classmates.

Each school in Austin excluding the Community Learning Center and the Area Learning Center had three finalists. Of those finalists, one person placed first, making seven finalists in all.

Allison Braaten never expected to win first place. The eighth-grader just hoped she wouldn’t screw up her poem when she read it. Even though she stuttered a bit, she was very excited to win.

“I was very surprised,” she said.

Jadon Fimon was excited to present his poem. The kindergartner first wrote his poem, “The Stormy Night,” just after he turned five years old.

He’s memorized it and can perform it on command. That’s in part to Asperger’s Syndrome, which makes Jadon able to memorize things as simple as a poem and as complex as the sound effects from “Monsters, Inc.”

“To be able to take that art and perform it is incredible,” said Michelle Fimon, Jadon’s mom.

Taryn Sims agrees. Sims, a sophomore at AHS knows the Eberhart contest very well, having placed first before when she was in fourth and ninth grade. Her poem, “Holocaust Survivors,” took first place again this year. The poem, which examines the Holocaust through the voice of the inanimate objects that oppressed Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and other people targeted by Nazi Germany used at concentration camps.

“It’s more than just a story, it’s more than just history,” Sims said of the Holocaust. She’d always been interested in the 1940s, and her visit to the Holocaust Museum during an AP U.S. History trip last year left a mark on her, when she was able to examine piles of hair, toys and shoes collected from concentration camps across Europe.

“It may just seem like items, but it has more of a history than anyone could imagine,” she said.

Each winner was awarded a small gift of money from the Eberhart family, which created an endowment fund for the Austin Public Education Foundation, the interest of which is used for the contest. Sims said she plans to donate part of her winnings to charity and keep the rest for college, which she is already saving for.

Regardless of whether students won or lost, it appears each student was thankful for the opportunity.

“It’s a lot of fun,” said Max Gillen, AHS senior. “It’s nice … to explore yourself through poetry.”