Revere High School freshman Abigail McHugh has been writing poetry since she was 11 as a way of expressing her feelings.
Now 15-years-old and with several years of writing poetry under her belt Abby, as she’s known at RHS, heard of a contest the high school was sponsoring to pick RHS’s new poet laureate.
“There was an announcement about the contest and I decided to submit some poems I had,†said Abby. “I just thought it would be a cool way to share my poetry.â€
Abby submitted four poems, “Soupâ€, “Human Bodyâ€, “Dead Rat†and “Lavender Scented Deodorant†with the latter being among her favorites.
“The one I presented for the final contest was “Lavender Scented Deodorantâ€, said Abby. “The poem is mostly about insecurity in a school environment. It’s basically a poem about anxiety, not really being able to function on a normal level because of the anxiety, generally being insecure about who you are in that environment.â€
The poem was a hit among the contest judges and two weeks ago found out she was chosen as the school’s new poet laureate.
“There was a brief ceremony during our advisory period and me and two other finalists got to present our poems and then they announced the winner,†said Abby. “I was pretty surprised. I thought I would be just one of the finalists. I didn’t think I would really win. So I was pretty surprised. I didn’t really read poetry as much growing up, I just kind of wrote it. I’d Just write about what I was feeling or just anything I could think of really–like what I was feeling about my life–about morality, mortality or anything that I was really feeling at the moment.â€
As RHS’s new poet laureate Abby will have several new responsibilities and is on her way to becoming a serious writer.
“There are a few things I have to do as the high school’s poet laureate,†she said. “Right now I’m basically working behind the scenes on some stuff. I have to plan poetry-related events for school for each semester. Next year, I’m going to write a poem for the graduating class. There’s also some good benefits. I get to take this poetry workshop with a teacher next year and I get to put it on my college resume. So that would be really good.â€
While Abby will be busy as the school’s new poet laureate she hopes to maybe someday get her poetry published so a wider audience can read it and begin working on learning to write songs.
“You could say my interest right now is mainly writing poetry but sometimes I am really into music,†said Abby. “I would like to learn how to write a song. I think that would be really interesting. I don’t really have a favorite musician but I just kind of listen to different things that I like.â€
Abby added, “In the future I would like to publish a book of some sortâ€.