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Norcio, Nishida, Calvo win poetry competition
Nine schools, 33 students, and 21 recitations later, Wednesday night’s 11th Annual Valentine N. Sengebau Poetry Competition concluded with Ann Margaret Norcio and Yuuki Nishida of Marianas High School emerging first place in the senior division, and Tyra Reese Atalig Calvo of Eskuelan San Francisco de Borja taking home first place in the junior division.
From right to left, Tyra Reese Atalig Calvo places first, Kelvin Wolf places second, and Jennylyn Candia places third in the junior division of 11th annual Valentine N. Sengebau Poetry Competition. (Dennis B. Chan)
Norcio and Nishida won for the piece Who Am I?, performed with a melodramatic sense of despair that begged the title question aloud. The poem answered itself with declarations of how the speakers talked, thought, loved, understood, and celebrated like different cultures on island.
The junior division required performers to recite one of Sengebau’s poems by heart.
Calvo won for her rendition of The Plague.
Prior to her delivery, she expounded on the topic of “arrogance,” which she thought was central to the poem. She told the crowd it was important to know the difference between esteem and pride.
With preacher-like bombast, she dived into her recital, evoking images of waves roaring, dark skies, and a wandering man with sermon-like dread and feeling. However, she later guided listeners to the “new dawn” glimmering within the poem, and “nature’s lesson” of its raw power over man.
Judges of the content of the original poetry were Bobby Cruz, Zaldy Dandan, and John Gonzales. Judges for the recitation of poems were Belen Busby, Carolyn Hosono, and Michael A. White.
Hopwood Junior High School, Dandan Middle School, Dr. Rita Inos Jr. Sr. High School, ESFB, Mount Carmel School, San Antonio Middle School, Seventh Day Adventist, Tinian Jr. Sr. High School, and Marianas High School participated in the competition.
Sengebau is known as Micronesia’s foremost poet, and spent the last 25 years of his life on Saipan.
