WFLF Student Poetry Book Launch
Works of Pensacola area’s brightest, and youngest, poets will be applauded and available in print at the 2016 Escambia County Student Poetry Book Launch Oct. 29 at the Tryon Branch Library.This year’s Student Poetry Contest with the theme “When I’m Alone,’’ drew 415 entries from children in grades 1 through 12, resulting in 35 award winners. The annual contest, begun in the late 1980s, is sponsored by the West Florida Literary Federation.
Students will read their winning poems at the Book Launch, and each will receive a free copy of the book. Copies of the book also will be available at the event for purchase by the public, at $9 each.
This year’s poems especially carried emotional impact as students wrote to the theme. “Our eyes were opened this year, not only to heartbreak, but to the aching beauty with which the students of Escambia describe their lives,” said Student Poetry Director Susan A. Lewis.
The poems conveyed children’s angst over scary noises in the night and disturbing dreams, along with their appreciation of nature’s beauty, and sadness in their lives. Second-grader Brooklynn Shelby, in a poem about being alone in the night, wrote of awakening to find her tall dolls were gone, and then, “I saw a blonde-haired doll sitting on the couch…she slowly moved her head…” and what then?
Others saw huge shadows and heard creaking floors. Second-grader Sienna Porter, however, found humor: “When I am alone, I play with my cat,’’ but “I hear a crash; it was my lamp,” and Sienna declares, “I need to send my cat to cat camp.”
The poems also bare sadness: Said one, “I just want to get out of here.”
The Book Launch event is free and will be 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Light refreshments will be available. Student winners will be asked to sign the Literary Federation’s copy and the contest director’s copy. The annual Student Poetry Contest is a combined effort including also Escambia County School District and Catholic and Christian schools, Pensacola Public Library and Books-a-Million.
