April is National Poetry Month and April 22 is Earth Day! To celebrate both events, the Land Trust of West Haven is collaborating with the Board of Education by hosting a nature-themed poetry contest for 3rd, 4th, and 8th-grade students. The winning poems will be revealed at an award ceremony on Friday, April 26, at 6 p.m. at the Land Trust’s Poetry Post located on the Savin Rock boardwalk near the Old Grove Park facilities. The rain date will be Saturday, April 27 at 6 p.m.
“Children have become so rooted in the digital world that they have become disconnected from the natural world,” said Marilyn Wilkes, Vice President of the Land Trust and event co-coordinator. “It’s vital that children learn about nature and understand its importance. We hope students use the beauty, peace, and power of the natural world to express their feelings through poetry.”
According to Colette Bennett, the Board of Education’s language arts coordinator and event co-coordinator, students have been learning about poetry in their classrooms for the past several weeks. In grades 3 and 4 in each elementary school, students are studying the haiku and the tanka, both Japanese poetic forms.
In grade 8 at Bailey Middle School, students are studying famous poems on the topic of nature. To appreciate how the theme of nature is developed in a given poem, they
identify patterns of language, structure, and punctuation.
A three-judge panel will determine the winning poems: Tony Fusco, Poet Laureate for the City of West Haven, Past President of the Connecticut Poetry Society, and co-chair of the Connecticut Poetry Society Haiku Chapter; Renny Loisel, President of the West Haven Land Trust; and Colette Bennett. Each winner will receive a $50 gift card, a native plant, and a packet of milkweed seeds, courtesy of the Land Trust’s Native Plant Initiative.
The Land Trust of West Haven, Inc. is a non-profit organization formed to promote the protection and preservation of natural resources and open space properties of public significance in West Haven with particular emphasis on the shoreline of the Long Island Sound in the general area of Savin Rock.