WMS students Ayla Lugo, Lyric Lugo, and Mia Miulenburg won the school-wide poetry contest and will read their poems  at the Evening with Young Writers on Tuesday, March, 26th at 6 pm in the WMS theater. 

Mr. Malmstrom, the organizer of the poetry competition explained some advice for young poets, “For young poets to be true to themselves, don’t be afraid to make a mistake, and write as much as you can. You can do as many free writes as you can, something that I call ‘word vomit’ which is exactly how it sounds. You write for about 10 to 15 minutes about any topic of your choice and not think about spelling or any grammar mistakes.  Then you choose what works and turn it into a poem.” 

Ayla Lugo, a past winner of the poetry competition, expounded where she gets her inspiration for writing poems, “My inspiration is either my own feelings or other people’s feelings like wanting to convey those feelings into words.”

Lyric Lugo is a 6th grader at WMS and clarified how she felt about the competition coming up, “I’m nervous because there will be a lot of different people there and a bunch of schools will also be there.” 

Lugo also explained how she got into poetry, “I actually started poetry over the summer. I got bored at home so that’s when I started.” 

Lyric is also Ayla’s sister, which is the first time at WMS that siblings have shared the honor.  Lyric Lugo said, “I’m not quite sure about my sister, but I don’t know how we got good. We did not work together. I just asked for her to proofread my poems.”    

Mia Muilenburg is a 7th grader and a G&T student at WMS and she conveyed her inspiration for writing poetry, “For the poetry competition I didn’t submit any creepy stuff but I like to write that or like emotional stuff too.” 

Muilenburg explained where she gets her inspiration to write poems, “I’m in G&T for writing so it’s really quiet there so mostly there but I also write poems in my room.” 

She also elicited if it was her first time doing the poetry contest, “Yes I didn’t know it was a thing in 6th grade so now I’m in 7th grade my ELA teacher just gave me the opportunity.”

Congratulations to Lyric Lugo, Mia Muelingburg, and Ayla Lugo!