By RORY MOORE
Tiger Media Network
Fort Hays State University’s Writing Center, Forsyth Library and the Hays Public Library hosted three events to expand students’ poetry writing skills last week, beginning with a Pop Up and Open Mic on Wednesday, and concluding with the 25th annual Poetry Contest on Friday. The week revolved around a ‘poet-tree’, for which students were encouraged to write poems on leaves placed on the tree for National Poetry Month.
The Writing Center’s role in these events was to help students enjoy partaking in the literature and prove that it is not outdated in a technological era.
“I want to see smiling faces and interaction with poetry,” Writing Center employee Olivia McGillivray said. “[I’d like to see] less villainization of poetry. It’s all about building community and being part of the library. With our library under construction, supporting HPL and encouraging people to come out is always a good thing.”
The poet-tree hangs on the wall of Memorial Union where students’ writing is displayed. 
Hailey Maldonado writes a poem about missing her “Levy while driving her Chevy.” 
Anna Towns tapes a poem to the poet-tree. 
The Forsyth Library and Hays Public Library introduce students to poetry through the poet-tree Pop Up. 
Students’ poems are placed into a pile for the poet-tree.
At the Pop Up in Memorial Union, students wrote poems based on their lives, feelings, or other poems for fun.
“I wrote my poem about love,” Junior Kaley Rajewski said. “It’s about finding that one person in your life who you can tell anything to and being a second option. I love poetry. I’ve been sharing my poetry for a while.”
Some students’ poems were serious, while others were humorous.
“I wrote something really dumb,” Freshman Hailey Maldonado said. “It was the first thing that came to mind. I said, ‘I missed my levy, so now I need to drive my Chevy.’ I just like rhyming things. It’s dumb, but it’s silly and fun, and I hope it makes someone giggle.”
The Open Mic took place inside the HPL Community Commons, where an opening reception was hosted to introduce people to the poet-tree, and students and faculty recited poems with a small audience in an intimate setting.
“Poetry has always had a special spot for me,” HPL Services Librarian Jessica Shields said. “Getting people to join in is always great because it’s one of those underrated forms of art. So. I’m very excited for us to have another event with poetry as the feature.”
Original and historic poems were read inside the HPL Community Commons. 
David Goodlett read several poems for the Open Mic. 
Elio Dixon Philips reads The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert W. Service. “There are strange things done in the midnight sun by men who moil for gold,” she recited. “The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sites, but the queerest they ever did see was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge. I cremated Sam McGee.” 
Anna Towns begins the Poet-Tree Open Mic with Jessica Shields.
Shields is optimistic about these events enabling students to widen their horizons in literature, especially with an older form of writing.
“It brings awareness to the fact that poetry is not dead; it’s still alive, and people are still doing it,” she said. “It also makes people think about how easy it is. One of the things we did with the students was, if they’re like, ‘Oh, I don’t know poetry.’ We’d be like, ‘Okay! What’s your favorite song lyric?’ That’s poetry. So, getting that connection and letting people realize how often poetry actually does impact your life [is the whole point].”
The week concluded with the Poetry Contest inside the HPL, where FHSU Poet Laureate Eileen Veatch won first place for her ‘Mirrors’ poem.
“My poem refers to the way my mom complains about her arms, legs, stomach and the way she arranges herself in pictures,” she said. “It is a reminder to mothers that your daughters are always listening and picking up your habits, even the harmful ones. It is easy to learn to critique yourself when the most beautiful woman you know is doing the same thing.”
As a poet and author, Veatch is confident that poetry is not becoming an antiquity and remains popular through modern media.
“I see poetry everywhere,” she said. “I’m constantly finding magazines open to submissions, new poetry books being published, etc. When someone discovers their favorite hobby is ‘dead,’ it means they’re not in the right environment. Luckily, HPL does a wonderful job creating a community of unique hobbies like poetry, and events like the contest keep interest alive in people of all ages.”
She believes poetry will live on through aspiring poets who pass the genre on to others.
“Poetry is still taught in schools because it’s an important genre of literature,” Veatch said. “That doesn’t mean everyone will enjoy it. But maybe one person will, and if poetry is truly their passion, they will promote it in their own ways, big or small.”
The 25th annual Poetry Contest saw participants read their poems to a group of four judges. 
Wayne C. Lang reads his poem ‘A Cowboy’s Dream” about having a dream of being a cowboy who is intercepted by Indians waking up to find a bullet hole in his mattress. 
Anna Towns reads her poem to Dawne Leiker, David Goodlett, Lisa Bell and Jessica Shields 
Eileen Veatch and Kaley Rajewski receive their prizes for first and second place from Shields.