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Oliver student wins national Remembrance Day poetry prize

Local kid wins nat'l award

An Oliver student has been awarded a top national honour for her poem honouring veterans.

Maya Baerg, 14, placed first in the Canada-wide Legion National Foundation Remembrance Day poetry contest in her age category.

She submitted her poem, "Remember Me Not," with the support of her Southern Okanagan Secondary School English teacher Braelyn Shione.

At a ceremony this week, Maya received her trophy. All of the winning entries are posted on the Legion Nation Foundation website.

Maya's father, Graeme Baerg, is also a teacher at the school, and couldn't be prouder of his daughter's accomplishment.

"I'm really proud of how she took on a contest that has usually a certain kind of poem that's expected. And she chose to do something that was surprising and different. And I think it really resonated with the people who run the contest," Graeme said.

"She just has all these ideas and thoughts in her head. She loves reading and she's always interested in what's going on in the world. And I think that was partly what inspired her to write what she did."

Read Maya's award-winning poem below:

"Remember Me Not"

Remember me not
By pretty words
Twinkling and twisting
Like spun gold and silver

Remember me not
From that theatre screen
We aren't a movie cast
This isn't an act

Remember me not
With that pinned on sympathy
“Lest we forget”
Cast it off after the event

Remember me with rawness
A wound that can't heal

Remember me with grief
Pain that forces you to your knees

Remember me with sorrow
That innocence we all once held
Lost to war’s unforgiving grasp

Remember me with joy
For my fight, my life, my youth,
However short

Remember me for who I was
Remember.



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