Students write inaugural poems for poetry academy contest

This combination of images released by Academy of American Poets shows, from left, Hallie Knight, 17, a high school senior from Jacksonville, Fla., Mina King, a 17-year-old from Shreveport, La., and 12-year-old Gabrielle Marshall, from Richmond, Va.. who came in first, second and third respectively in a poetry contest organized by the Academy of American Poets for which students wrote their own inaugural poems. Knight's poem is called To Rebuild. and King's poem is In Pursuit of Dawn," and Marshall's poem is "The Power of Hope." The official inaugural poem will be read during Wednesday's ceremony by Amanda Gorman, the countrys first Youth Poet Laureate. (Photos by Hallie Knight, from left, Robin Hines and Jan Marshall/Academy of American Poets via AP) (Uncredited)

NEW YORK ā€“ Hallie Knight, a high school senior from Jacksonville, Florida, has some well formed ideas about where the country is and how she'd like to see it change.

The 17-year-old has won a contest organized by the Academy of American Poets for which students under 18 wrote their own inaugural poems in anticipation of Wednesday's swearing in of President-elect Joe Biden. Applicants for the Inaugural Poem Project were urged to submit work that reflects ā€œon the countryā€™s challenges, strengths, and hope for its future," according to the guidelines.

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Knight says she "wanted to acknowledge the greatness of the potential for our country at this present moment, and the opportunity we have as citizens to choose what it becomes out of all this chaos.ā€

Inspired by works ranging from W.H. Auden's ā€œAs I Walked Out One Eveningā€ to Adrienne Rich's ā€œStorm Warnings,ā€ Knight crafted a piece called ā€œTo Rebuildā€ that likens the U.S. to a house that has been severely but not hopelessly damaged.

The work is not complete until

The walls protect all who live there,

No exceptions. Abandonment of all

Unnecessary despair.

Knight will receive $1,000, and her work ā€” along with the poems of two runners-up ā€” will be featured on Poets.org and in American Poets magazine.

The official inaugural poem will be read during Wednesday's ceremony by Amanda Gorman, the countryā€™s first Youth Poet Laureate. She is 22, just a few years older than Knight.

ā€œShe is proof to people of all ages, but especially those younger than her, that there is no need to wait to make an impact,ā€ Knight says.

A former inaugural poet, Richard Blanco, served as judge for the contest finalists. Blanco said he was impressed by Knight's imagery, likening it to Abraham Lincolnā€™s famous warning that a ā€œhouse divided against itself cannot stand.ā€ He added that he was taken by the level of craft Knight and others demonstrated, and by their remarkably unbroken idealism.

ā€œEven after everything we've been through the past few years, they're not giving up," says Blanco, who read at the 2013 inaugural of President Barack Obama. ā€œWe don't want to sugarcoat what's going on and be a Hallmark kind of poem. We're looking for that balance of truth and hope.ā€

Mina King, a 17-year-old from Shreveport, Louisiana, came in second for ā€œIn Pursuit of Dawn," in which she wove in the common American theme of rising from poverty.

My stepfather created opportunity

from the destitute nothing he was dealt,

consoled only by the American dream

that came as whispers under snow-dappled stars.

And from these muffled mumblings

he bettered his situation.

The third-place finisher is just 12 years old: Gabrielle Marshall, from Richmond, Virginia. Her ā€œThe Power of Hopeā€ acknowledged the countryā€™s profound divisions, and possibilities:

Todayā€™s hope is peering

beyond

the lingering barrier,

but still recognizing the diversity in ourselves.


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