Westridge seventh grader enters poetry in Nebraska Writing Project

Westridge Middle School seventh-grader Morgan Mallory said she wrote poetry even before her teachers assigned her to write a poem this spring.

Writing poetry was an activity that Mallory would share with only a small group of people, which typically would include her family and just a few friends.

But all that changed when Mallory's teachers, Chris Raabe and Stacy Vogel, submitted her poetry to the Nebraska Writing Project.

Mallory's assignment was to write about a place that she knows. Her first poem was about a movie theater, based on her experiences at the Mall Stadium 7 movie theaters in the Conestoga Mall.

She noted going to the movies is something she likes to do with her friends.

"I like the popcorn and the whole experience," said Mallory, who noted she tried to get those feelings across in her poem.

Mallory only reluctantly revised her poem at her teachers' urging, adding a couple of lines at the end and also making changes to a few of the original lines of poetry she wrote.

She eventually was inspired to write a second poem about a favorite place, which was her grandparents' swimming pool at a home they own in California.

She got to take a surprise trip to her grandparents' home as part of a March birthday present. Mallory said the surprise was revealed a bit at a time during her birthday party, when she was given her gifts. She kept opening presents from a purse and was surprised to get flipflops, sunscreen and sunglasses.

Mallory said she couldn't see how she could use such gifts during 30-degree weather that is typical for March in Nebraska. She finally got the airplane ticket, which revealed she would be making the flight to the second home of her grandparents, who actually spend most of the year in Grand Island.

During her visit, Mallory used the pool once a day. The pool had beautiful physical surroundings, which made it easy to write about.

Mallory said she appreciated the pool, because she knew how cold "all the kids in Grand Island" probably were in March.

She said that whenever she got into the pool, it was like she was "entering a new world."

Even though she got to use the pool in March, Mallory used a little creative or poetic license by switching the poem's time frame to summer.

Raabe was the teacher who informed Mallory that she would be taking a trip to Lincoln to participate in the Nebraska Writing Project.

Upon arrival, Mallory and her mother, Stacy Kelly, received another surprise. The seventh-grader was the only middle school student at the event.

"There was Lincoln Southeast, a lot of Lincoln schools and the two students from Aurora," said Kelly, noting the names printed in the program. "Then there was Westridge Middle School."

"This is the first year they've opened it up to middle school students," Kelly said.

Mallory said she enjoyed hearing the other students' poetry, especially a poem by one girl who wrote about how Nebraska is not flat.

She said the girl read the poem well, with pauses at all the appropriate places. The high school student also was able to use gestures that accented the words in her poem.

Mallory acknowledged she was not nearly so experienced at reading poetry in public. But Mallory believed she was helped by her musical theater classes at Smitty's Performing Arts Center, where she has learned about dancing, singing and acting.

Because of that experience, she said, "I wasn't as nervous (as I could have been)."

Mallory said her other interests include running track at Westridge.

However, volleyball is by far her favorite sport, said Mallory, who competes for a traveling volleyball team called the Vikes 13-1.

The seventh-grader said writing poetry is something she usually does in her room on a rainy day when she can't get outside.

Mallory said she may still confine her writing to rainy days, but she noted her experience with the Nebraska Writing Project has definitely encouraged her to keep composing poetry.