East Meadow student a winner in poetry contest

An East Meadow eighth-grader drew on family tradition for her poem “Let it Snow,” one of 12 winners in a poetry contest presented by The New York Botanical Garden.

Mubaraka Ezzi, 13, who attends W. Tresper Clarke Middle School in Salisbury, described in verse her family’s ritual of putting a spoon under a pillow and wearing pajamas inside out to help make it snow. She wrote it for the botanical garden’s Holiday Train Show Poetry Contest.

Ezzi was the only Long Island student to get an award. Participants were asked to submit original work inspired by the magic of winter and the holiday season.

“I just thought of this poem off the top of my head,” she said. “It was a really fun experience.”

The contest, held in partnership with the Poetry Society of America, received more than 120 submissions. The winning poems were selected by Billy Collins, of Manhattan, who was poet laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. The students shared their poems during a public reading at the garden on Dec. 16.

“We had a feeling her poem would appeal to Mr. Collins,” said Cindy Dale, a business teacher at the school. “It was a fun, clever and playful piece.”

Ezzi is a member of her school’s tennis team and is involved in the Cooking Club and Homework Helpers Club.

By Michael R. Ebert

michael.ebert@newsday.com

Michael R. Ebert is an education researcher and has worked for Newsday in various capacities since 2003. He was part of an 11-person team named as 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalists for investigative coverage of the LIRR's platform safety issues.