Published: April 24, 2008 09:20 am            

Poetry in the Park

NOTE: Rain is predicted for Monday, April 28, so “Poetry in the Park” will be moved to the Center for Performing Arts at Corbin High School at 7 pm.  Student poetry winners should be at the high school at 6:30.

By Sean Bailey / Staff Writer

Corbin students are getting a chance next week to fill Main Street with their deepest thoughts and lyrical poems.

On Monday students from Corbin schools will read poetry in NIBROC park, with the Corbin Alumni Band and the Corbin High School band also performing. The whole event will be televised on Corbin High School produced, Channel 18.

In celebration of National Poetry Month, Brenda Jones, the librarian at Corbin High School, organized the poetry contest and reading. Jones wasn’t sure how students would respond.

“We got 30 to 35 people submitting their poems, which is really good considering none of the students were required to submit anything,” Jones said.

Jones enlisted the help of English teacher Pam Bishop to judge the submissions. Bishop was also pleasantly surprised by the interest, noting that one student was so excited by the contest that she submitted a whole book of poetry.

“It’s really hard to judge student’s poems. You can really tell that some of them have some really personal investments in the topics they wrote about,” Bishop said.

Winners of the contest will be awarded gift cards for Books-A-Milion bookstore.

Jones was not only impressed by the poetry the students produced, but also the art produced for the event.

Student Matthew Theodore created the emblem for the event.

“I knew that I wanted something that had the park in it, the school in it, and something to do with poetry. I had no idea what I wanted it to look like, and then I saw what Matthew came up with and I knew that was exactly what I was looking for,” Jones said.

In addition to the contest and reading, students created a “poet tree” that hangs outside of Bishop’s classroom. The “tree” is made up of leaves bearing student’s poems.

Junior Dakota Taylor was one of the many students who submitted his poem for inclusion on the tree. His poems is about the Virginia Tech tragedy.

“I wrote this one for Mrs. Bishop’s class, I liked writing it. I like writing just about anything,” Taylor said.

Taylor was still debating on Wednesday, whether or not he wanted to share his poem at Monday’s event.

The public is invited to Monday’s reading. The reading will begin at 7 p.m. and people are asked to bring their lawnchairs to enjoy the poems.

        

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