Student Wins Poetry Award

April 29, 2013

Dan Lewis (contest judge), Judith Ferrara (contest judge), Lauren Buczek (Assumption College), Egan Millard (College of the Holy Cross), Jighjigh Tersoo-Ivase (Worcester Polytechnic Institute), Joe Gullekson(Worcester State University), Jessica Bane Robert (contest chair), Emma Pierson (Clark University). Photo courtesy of http://wcpa.homestead.com/Jighjigh Tersoo-Ivase ’13 has won the top prize at the Worcester County Poetry Association’s College Poetry Competition. This is the second year in a row a WPI student has grabbed this local poetry accolade. Tersoo-Ivase read his poems “We Are Not Free Men” and “I Walked On,” and won out of a competitive group which included students from Assumption, Clark, Holy Cross, and Worcester State for the performance prize. Read one of his winning poems below.

 

We Are Not Free Men

 

We are not free men

But what is freedom?

What is that fruit of revolution that we seek to evolve to?

That we might revolve on a spindle of clear conscience.

To some it’s a wish fulfilled

To some, a mindless kiss

 

***We are not free men***

 

Our lives are intertwined

Into the lives of other lives

In this puddle of life

I please you

Would displease

Him

Would encourage

Her

Would discourage

You

I love her

Means I can’t love you

At least not in the same way

 

***We are not free men***

 

We shout out!

We want to do that we want to do!

We want to follow our desires

Explore the view

But why I’m unhappy now?

It’s because of you.

I still don’t wish I was the only man in the world

 

***We are not free men***

 

We lie, we hide

We deceive, we abide

Because we fear the effect of our truth

The effect our truth may have on the other

 

***We are not free men***

 

So giving up this life

He gave himself to please those

Who believe in him

And by doing so

Though he believed in himself

Could not express that belief

Through any action

But he will not attempt to change a choice

“unfreely” made

For though the illusion of free-will

Might think it otherwise

No choice is freely made

 

***We are not free men***

 

 

Learn more about the Worcester County Poetry Association here:

http://wcpa.homestead.com/

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