Menu
Tzouanakis students honored for their poetry
By LAUREN BOUCHER
Staff Writer
A pair of Tzouanakis Intermediate School students have recently been awarded for their efforts in the 2012 Max Ehrmann Poetry Competition.
Students Amanda Allee and Vivian Savage of Karen Hirt's fourth and fifth grade split high ability class were among the 503 entries received from 386 individuals in six counties.
"They just really wanted it to be another form of art," Hirt said. "They were able to choose from the topics of city life, a piece of artwork or nature."
Allee chose to write about nature in a poem titled 'Grass':
Little blades
more thin and sleek
than sharp.
tiny drops collect on
you as if
fairies placed them
there. You are
free to bend
and be outside
I am isolated
...inside.
"One of the categories to write about was nature," explained Alee. "I thought it'd be fun to write about grass."
Each student was able to enter two poems, however only one each from Allee and Savage were chosen.
Savage chose to base her work off of the painting "The Banjo Player" by Henry Ossawa Tanner.
Her poem read like this:
My grandpa held me on his lap,
Telling me to strum softly.
He made me feel safe,
Teaching his grandson to play.
The banjo vibrated calmly,
In my arms.
The room was so silent.
Except for the two of us.
The dreams in my life
Came alive that day.
To play the banjo!
It was true.
"We did the competition to go along with our poetry unit," Hirt said. "I was just so excited that they won."
To celebrate the students win, the students were honored at a Thursday, April 12 awards cremony at St. Mary-of-the-Woods College
The winning poems will be displayed at the Vigo County Public Library.