Student Poets at St. Anthony School

Student Poets at St. Anthony School

Creative Communications sponsors a poetry contest for students each year; ten winners in each age group are chosen. Thousands of poems are submitted by students throughout New England. Winning poems are awarded a monetary prize and are published in a book called A Celebration of Young Poets. You might not find it on the New York Times bestsellers list, but it makes for great reading. Perhaps the next Maya Angelou or Jack Kerouac is somewhere in the pages of this book.

Six, seventh and eighth grade English students of St. Anthony School in Winsted entered this poetry contest last year. Of the more than 30 entries, 11 poems were chosen to be published. Winning poets were Marie Barth, Shannon Bailey, Jennifer Bordonaro, Mark Connole, Geoffrey Hall, Caitlin Jamieson, Suzanne Scala, Sam Serafini, Robin Szypulski, Adam Williams and Christine Stenman.

"It's cool to be in a book," says Sam Serafini, whose poem titled "Moonlight" is included in the collection.

Teacher Pat Devanney, who is now principal of St. Anthony's, says she's been entering the students' poems for the last six years. With each passing year, more students have been published. "It's important that they learn they have something creative in them."