This spring, for the 27th year, the city of Cambridge awarded poetry prizes to a worthy group of aspiring poets in grades K–8. Of the more than 500 applicants, nominated mostly by teachers, 55 winners were chosen by a panel of youth services librarians.
The Youth Poetry Awards program is noteworthy for two reasons. First, it demonstrates a commitment to rewarding the creativity and poetic prowess of the city’s youth. Athletes and students with other talents have their moments in the sun during the school year, but these awards are all about poetry. Second, the prizes represent a cooperative effort among the librarians and schoolteachers of Cambridge. The librarians solicit and choose the winning poems from among those submitted. They also plan a ceremony that celebrates the poets and their creative efforts in high style.
The winners recite their poems to a large and enthusiastic audience (not so easy for the littlest ones). The poems are grouped by theme (nature, food, family, feelings, politics, etc.) rather than age, so younger poets alternate with older students. Naturally, the subject matter ranges widely, from raindrops to the plight of Palestinians. Each winner receives an age-appropriate poetry anthology, carefully matched to their poem by the librarians; a book plate; and a certificate (for decades, the Friends of the Library has generously underwritten the cost of the books). The evening concluded with fresh flowers for the poets and cookies for all.
Shireen Potia, a talented and poised seventh-grader, won this year for “Blueprint,” a stream-of-consciousness poem about pushing back against society’s expectations and standards of beauty (“If I give up chasing you, then / maybe / I’ll learn to be myself”) [editor’s note: The complete poem is at the end of the story]. She has entered the competition every year since first hearing about it in third grade, once submitting 17 poems for consideration. She won in fifth grade for her poem “Sunset,” and again in sixth grade for “Spinning,” a poem about a game that she and her friends played at recess.
Not surprisingly, Potia’s poems have gotten more sophisticated and her confidence in reading them in front of an audience has grown each year. She keeps a poetry journal and claims that “winning the poetry award has helped me to believe in myself as a writer and, especially, a poet.” Her mother, Zeenat Potia, helped Shireen rehearse her poem before the event, to calm her daughter’s nerves and help her get “the rhythm” just right. Zeenat said she is quite impressed and grateful for the “care and thought” that goes into every aspect of the program.
One of the original masterminds of the program, Amanda Gazin, is a retired youth services librarian. She has kept it running and made improvements during its long history. For her, the best part is hearing from “an amazingly diverse group of kids with thoughts and feelings that they would probably never reveal in daily life, but which found a way into their poetry.” The results more than justified all her hard work: “Everyone wants to feel special, and making kids, especially kids who may be struggling, feel special makes it all worthwhile.”
The current leader of the team is Hill Saxton, senior youth services librarian at the Central Square branch of the library, where the program has been housed since its inception. The awards are open to poets from kindergarten through eighth grade, but since there’s a curriculum unit devoted to poetry in fourth and fifth grades, there are a larger number of submissions from that age group.
Saxton is always exhilarated by the poems, which range from “playful to inspiring.” Saxton and the other judges are looking for poems that are memorable and that “sit with us a while,” regardless of subject matter or style.
Saxton said that their favorite part of the program is seeing the young poets read their work at the ceremony, being “as true to themselves as they’re ever going to be.”
This article appeared in slightly different form in Publishers Weekly.
Betsy Groban is the author of several books for children, most recently “Pow for Pia” (Simon & Schuster Spotlight). She also serves on the board of the Associates of the Boston Public Library.
Blueprint by Shireen Potia
“Ourselves”
Ugh, that word again.
What, exactly,
does it mean?
Because,
I thought it meant what it sounded like but clearly not
You scream at me when my top is too short
and yell at me when my pants are too long
You scowl when I wear foundation
but scoff when I just curl my lashes
What, exactly,
do you want me to be-
who,
do you want me to be?
Because I know it’s not the
mixed race teenager who’s too passionate about
“stupid things”
standing in front of you.
Who, exactly
is the blueprint?
The standard?
Adam, Eve, this, that, him, her
Who chooses these rules,
handpicks these stereotypes?
Your eyes can’t be too small,
body can’t be too big,
and god forbid you have a different skin color.
How long will it take people to realize that we are not the minority,
but you are not
the majority
You with the perfect body,
tan skin,
bleach blonde hair,
I will never be you,
never achieve those goals,
never complete those ab workouts gathering dust in my Pinterest boards
I guess,
that’s a good thing?
If I give up chasing you, then
maybe
I’ll learn to be myself
But how can I be myself with no teacher?
Who, exactly,
is the blueprint?
Adam, Eve, this, that, him, her,
who is
the
standard?
A stronger
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