A Buddhist altar, usually used as a focal point for prayer, meditation, and sacrifice. Incense is burned to communicate one’s prayers and wishes. However, one might view it as a product of tradition, and an object used to worship made-up entities that came from the human imagination.
Jenn Ngeth, who won first place in Highline’s 10th annual poetry contest, wanted her poem, Self Portrait as Incense During Worship, to shine light on and question the credit given to gods for the creation of humans, hence her focus on an object that is used to worship them.
“The inspiration for my poem was my Buddhist altar. Growing up in a Khmer household, my family’s relationship with Buddhism was more about our cultural traditions versus following a more structured religion,” said Ngeth.
“But my grandma is Christian, and she’d bring me to church on Sundays, spending time with the other kids and youth leaders. From a very young age, it made me aware of the differences between the two religions––causing me to ask lots of questions until now,” Ngeth said.
“With my poem, I was hoping to shatter the illusion that humans are any more special than other forms of life,” said Ngeth.
Ngeth, 26, grew up in Seattle but moved to SeaTac. She is working on finishing up her associate in applied science transfer degree in Visual Communications.
“I am working towards getting a bachelor of applied science in Integrated Design, and I plan to become a graphic designer,” Ngeth said.
In second place was 24-year-old Rosie Pound, who wrote, For Kiara and Karly – The Angels over Ballyhoo.
“This poem is about two girls, Kiara and Karly, who passed away in a car accident in my hometown a few years ago. Kiara was my little sister’s best friend, and both of the girls were well known by me, my family and the community,” Pound said. “I’m from a very small town in Alaska called Unalaska where I spent my whole life until I graduated high school.”
“This poem is mostly about grief and was an outlet for me to express some of my feelings about the situation in a healthy way,” said Pound. “It’s been really great to share it with family and others who knew Kiara and Karly and just sort of read the words and be there with our feelings.”
Pound went to the Art Institute of Portland and received her bachelor’s in Fine Arts and is currently taking her required classes at Highline before transferring to another school to pursue a degree in environmental science.
The third-place poem was, War memory lane, written by 43-year-old William Kuch.
“I wanted to express my emotional feelings and thoughts on things that I never share openly with most people,” said Kuch. “My inspiration was to spread awareness about what veterans of foreign wars went through. I went to let others read about it and thought it would be fun as it is.”
Kuch, who used to live in South Sudan, is close to finishing his bachelor of applied behavioral science in Youth Development.
Several other students and their poems were awarded with honorable mentions:
- Forgiveness by Gianna Campos
- I’m from… by Yesphir Drozdyuk
- My Two Cents by Ailin Godinez
- Old Photographs by K. Huynh
- Big Words by Alivia Joyce
- Crumbled Anger by Bethany Tuchardt
- Yarn by Jana Velasquez
These poets will be celebrated during National Poetry Month in April at an in-person reception and reading which will be on Thursday, April 28 from 2 to 3:30 p.m.
“We hope to be able to live stream the poetry contest reception if possible,” said Deborah Moore, a reference librarian at Highline.
“During the reception we will hang broadsides of the winning poems around the room for people to view before the readings begin, and the contest winners will receive a copy of their poem on a broadside and a check for the prize they won,” said Moore.
“In-person readings haven’t been done since April 2019 and we look forward to gathering to celebrate these amazing student poets in a shared space,” Moore said.
To further celebrate National Poetry Month, poets Enzo Silon Surin and Naomi Shihab Nye will have readings and workshops in April and May.
“Surin is a poet, educator, speaker, publisher, and social advocate. He writes of the toll the violence takes on young black bodies; the bodies who watch from the sidelines and just want to keep their heads down,” said Moore.
There will be a virtual reading and workshop with Surin on Thursday, April 21 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“Nye is the first U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate and as a ‘traveling poet’ she has taken poetry to classrooms, auditoriums, and concert halls around the world,” said Moore. “Highline has been waiting nearly a decade for her schedule to allow her to visit our campus.”
The in-person reading and workshop with Nye will be on Thursday, May 12 from 10 a.m. to noon in Building 8, Mt. Constance.
For more information, please visit https://npm.blogs.highline.edu/
If you have questions, please contact npm@highline.edu