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"Dearest World" – Poetry Competition Success
Kenzie G. is continuing to cement herself as one of Vancouver Island’s best young poets.
The Grade 12 student at Shawnigan Lake School was named a finalist in the MC Youth Visual Poetry & Spoken Word Competition for the second time in the last three years. She previously placed third in the 2023 contest.
Kenzie admitted she wasn’t expecting much when she sent in her submission, titled “Dearest World.” With the deadline looming, she ended up writing the poem while suffering from a concussion. She then had to record herself reading it aloud and turn it into a video in a short time span.
“I went from writing it to producing the film in two and a half hours,” Kenzie explained.
The unfortunate circumstances under which she was working on the poem may have actually helped, Kenzie suggested.
“The concussion helped me think outside the box,” she said. “I wrote it as an apology to the world for not appreciating all the beauty in it.”
From there, Kenzie had to turn the poem into a video. Fortunately, she won the Filmmakers Achievement Award in her 360 program last year, and that experience helped her create the visual aspects. She used B-roll of some of the things referred to in the poem and added music underneath the recording of her own voice reciting the words along with the text of the poem.
Unlike some entrants, Kenzie didn’t include her name in the video, instead signing it "Yours Truly, a Wandering Soul." That was by design, to make the poem sound like it could be coming from anyone.
“Anyone who listens to it could relate to it,” she explained.
The poetry contest has few restrictions for competitors, allowing them a great deal of creative freedom. Both of Kenzie’s entries have focused on mental health, something she hopes will “make the judges think a little bit.”
The annual MC Youth Visual Poetry & Spoken Word Competition was established in 2022 in honour of the late Michael Coleman, the longest-serving mayor of the City of Duncan, who also practiced law in Duncan for nearly 50 years, and was named Queen’s Counsel in 2010. He was known for his love of poetry, publishing several books of his own poems, which inspired the competition. Kenzie isn’t the first Shawnigan student to experience success: when she placed third in 2023, first-place went to then-Grade 12 student Elani Sveistrup-Perk, and the winner in 2022 was Shawnigan senior Grace Lavigne.
The competition is open to students in the Cowichan Valley and the Gulf Islands, who must submit a video presentation of an original piece of poetry between one and five minutes long, along with a written copy of the work. The are graded on a range of criteria, including content and theme, language, poetic qualities, and presentation. The finalists were invited to an event at the Cowichan campus of Vancouver Island University, where the winner received $5,000, second place received $2,500, and third place received $1,000.
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