Proud Parent of an Award Winning Poet

Sometimes I’m amazed at what my children are up to. And (believe it or not) sometimes that’s not all my fault. They don’t always inform me of everything that’s going on. Last week, DC came home to report that she’d won second place in a poetry contest. I hadn’t even realized she’d entered a poetry contest, and at first I figured it was just something her class had done.

Denisa and I asked more questions, and it turns out this was a bigger thing than we’d realized. It was a contest put on by the Literacy Volunteers of Franklin and Somerset Counties, along with the Farmington Public Library. There were age groups (0-10, 11-17, 18-25, 26+), and DC had won second place in the 11-17 category. There was going to be a public reading of the winning entries, and she’d also scored a $15 prize for her efforts.

(She’d submitted three. The one that won was her least favorite one, and she was very surprised it had been the one the judge liked the most. A good reminder that it’s always a good idea to do everything you can when entering a contest, and to remember you’re often not the best judge of your own work.)

Her fifth grade teacher had been the one to encourage her students to enter, promising to take them out for dinner if any of them won. She followed through on that promise, taking our entire family and the family of the second place winner in the 0-10 category out to eat, a remarkably generous gesture on her behalf. DC was very excited.

The reading itself was lovely, and it was great to see DC get that sort of recognition. It turns out she’d won for a haiku. I’d never even known she was composing poetry before this, and I was impressed with the haiku she’d come up with. I share it now with her permission:

The leaves turn yellow

In the near standing hot sun

Burning fast, gone quick.

Great job, DC! I thought she did a super job capturing a concrete image, and I was impressed by her word choice and use of the form to convey it. It’s lovely to see her develop and flourish as an artist and musician and student. If you see her, congratulate her.

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