Central Bucks Senior Wins 2018 Bucks County High School Poet Of The Year

A Central Bucks East Senior has been named 2018 Bucks County High School Poet of the Year.

Rachel Chen, of Furlong, beat out more than 150 entries to win the 31st annual award given out by Bucks County Community College.

The 17-year-old said she’s been writing poetry since she was in third grade, when her poems were published in her school newsletter. “I like the way that poetry communicates your feelings in just a few words,” said Chen. “It’s a wonderful, creative outlet, and I’ve always enjoyed that method of expressing myself.” Chen noted she was encouraged to enter the contest by her English teacher at C.B. East, Tricia Conn.

Chen is a well-rounded student, as a National Merit Scholar Finalist, piano player for 12 years, and she recently committed to attend Princeton University in the fall to study mathematics.

Chen won a $300 prize and will share her winning works at a poetry reading and reception from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 12 , in room 142 of Tyler Hall at the college’s Newtown campus, located at 275 Swamp Road. Chen will be joined by runners-up and finalists in the contest in a celebration of young poets from across the county. Those attending the free event will receive an anthology containing the winning poems and a poem from each entrant, Writes of Passage Vol. 8.

“We received over 150 entries, and they were strong across the board,” said Rackin. “In fact, the judges named a tie for third-runner-up and named a special mention,” said Professor Ethel Rackin.

The judges also named Council Rock High School South sophomore Kiley Malloy as first runner-up and Central Bucks West senior Eric Conor Lutts as second runner-up. They chose a tie for third runner-up –Amara Chimeze and Alesandra Temerte, both juniors at C.B. East – and awarded a “special mention” to William Tennent senior Taylor Fane.

Read Chen’s winning poem below:

We the People

We are not who you think we are:

Creatures from across the way

Who bring with us our alien nature

And our strange voices—

Cacophony to your ears.

We tell you our stories, and you think they are truths;

We tell you our truths, and you say they are stories.

Instead you give us new names

And jobs

And tell us to stay in our little squares,

And you get angry when we do too little

Or too much.

When you pat our heads

And tell us we are lucky

To be so fortunate,

We scream in protest.

And though you pretend not to hear,

We know

You do.

We are stars that rise

And shine in the midst of the dark.

And though you try to cover us up,

Every night we come back

And glow a little brighter.

We are more than just a name,

A face,

A number:

“Them.”

Tomorrow,

We will rise above the ashes of our martyrs

To become more than

One of the Others—

To unite

As We the People.

– Rachel Chen

---

---