AHS creative writing students Junior Ella Forsterling and Senior Carly Hytinen entered a sijo competition through the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and The Sejong Cultural Society.

First place received $300 and runner-ups took home $150. Both Hytinen and Forsterling received runner-up placements for their sijo poems.

Divisions of poems included Adult, Senior, and Junior.

A sijo is a traditional three-line Korean poem, each line having 14-16 syllables for an end result of 44-46 syllables. The first line contains the theme of the poem, where the main event is introduced. The second line is a continuation of the first line. The third line has a counter-theme and the conclusion of the poem. 

Hytinen’s Senior Runner-up sijo:

She

She holds our past, our love, our future. She knows our weakness and strength.

She dances with the stars and glimmers in the bright sun, floating above it all.

“The moon is quite beautiful, isn’t she?” “Yes, she’s breathtaking.”

Forsterling’s Senior Runner-Up sijo

Untitled

clouds stand still, they look painted

    on the canvas of the blue sky.

soft grass tickles my arms and legs.

    birds chirp loud. not loud enough,

to drown out the screams and yelling

    of my parents inside the house

Creative Writing teacher Elizabeth Jorgensen said, “Each year, I share sijo with my creative writing students. I love the poetry form and I appreciate how much students are able to express within the three lines. Both Ella and Carly are talented writers and I’m so glad their poems were selected as winners. I’m so proud of them.”

Forsterling said, “I learned about this competition from my Creative Writing teacher, Elizabeth Jorgensen. This was the assignment I found most interesting.”

Hytinen said, “I was introduced to sijo through my creative writing teacher Ms. Jorgensen. I have never written sijo before but I completely fell in love with this format. I loved being able to be creative with a new form of writing and I can’t wait to keep learning!”

Forsterling finds enjoyment in writing short stories, “I enjoy writing short poetry pieces and found this to be a powerful writing tool.”

Hytinen shares the admiration, “I will be attending the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the fall and I will be pursuing my love of writing by majoring in communications. I hope one day to be a journalist.”