Poetry Celebration

For the third year in a row, Kaitlyn has won an award for her poetry. For 25 years the Martin Library has hosted this wonderful poetry contest for students in grades 1-12 and they were pleading last night with parents and educators to continue teaching and supporting creativity and the arts. Sadly, many in the room last night know this may be a hard fight as priorities are shifting more and more from reading and writing creative things like poetry in a classroom to reading only things that will prepare students to take tests.

York City's Poet Laureate told a story about asking a room full of small children if they loved to dance, paint, or write and all the little children raise their hands enthusiastically. However, by the time the same group of children reach college, very few will raise their hands because somehow along the way they have stopped dancing, painting, and writing. Why? Is it not "cool" anymore? Were they not encouraged? Did they get so busy that they stopped noticing the beautiful and lovely world they live in?

Each year I leave this poetry celebration thankful for creativity and the power of words to express thoughts, emotions, and beliefs. May we never stop creating and we know that creativity comes in many more forms than just poetry.

Here is Kaitlyn's award-winning poem.

A Brother

A brother is someone you love deep down
But whenever you see him
You just want to frown
A brother is someone who likes to tease you
A brother seems to NEVER please you
This is how a brother expresses his love
In the most annoying way
But if I had to vote for my brother to go or stay
Believe it or not I would vote
STAY
I don't know if I could live if my brother went away