By Khalida Sarwari
The notion that poetry is confined to the page is being challenged at the Campbell Library this month, where, in celebration of National Poetry Month, there are many ways to appreciate this literary art.
The library will be displaying six posters through mid-May featuring “Poetry on the Move,” a project by Santa Clara County poet laureate Sally Ashton to place poetry in VTA light rail and buses.
Campbell Library is also hosting an ongoing free poetry workshop that meets on the first Wednesday of every month. The workshop is open to residents of all ages and is led by Magdalena Montagne, a longtime poetry teacher.
“It’s for people who have always wanted to write poetry but didn’t know how to begin or people who have a story to tell,” said Cheryl Houts, a community librarian.
Teen residents are invited to submit up to three original poems by May 1 for the Santa Clara County Library’s fifth annual Teen Poetry Contest. The poems cannot be longer than 30 lines and must be printed neatly or typed. They can be submitted with an entry form in person at the library or online at www.sccl.org/teen/poetry_con test_form.html.
The submitted poems will be judged by a panel of librarians on original content, style, vocabulary and creative expression. Two winners, one from a middle school and one from a high school, will be awarded a $25 gift card, and their poems will be entered into a national contest held by Voice of Youth Advocates, or VOYA, in December.
Valley School junior Rachel Steeves, who was one of the winners last year, recently won the VOYA 2011 poetry contest for the same poem she submitted for the library contest. Her poem, called “Reverberations,” was published in the April 2012 issue of VOYA magazine.
The second winner last year was Saba Gebremedhin, an eighth-grader at Old Orchard School.
Marlene Iwamoto, a teen services librarian, said she has received just 20 entries so far.
She encouraged students to “choose a subject matter that matters to them and draw on their own creative individuality.”
For more information about the Teen Poetry Contest, visit www.sccl.org/teen/poetry_contest.
Call goes out to young local poets to participate in Campbell contest
