Lyonel Doherty, Times Chronicle
A heart-felt poem by an Oliver high school student has won the Royal Canadian Legion’s National Literary Contest.
Maya Baerg’s poem titled “Remember Me Not” won the top award in Canada in the intermediate poetry category. She recently took the top award in the province and it wasn’t long for the judges to give her the national award.
Peter McKenna, zone commander for the South Okanagan-Similkameen, said Baerg is the first student in Oliver to win the national award in her category, which is a great honour.
Baerg, a Grade 9 student at Southern Okanagan Secondary School, said she wasn’t expecting to win the provincial award, let alone the national award, noting that her teacher prompted her to enter the contest. She explained that the idea for the poem stemmed from her family’s experience in wars.
Here is her winning poem:
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.
