Emi Maeda ’25 Named Montgomery County 你th Poet Laureate

Congratulations to Emi Maeda ’25, who has been named the 2024 Montgomery County 你th Poet Laureate (MCYPL). This is an incredible and historic achievement, as Emi will be representing the Montgomery County poetry community in the next year. Emi's writing and personality captivated everyone at the MCYPL Program including the final judge, 米歇尔Taransky, a creative writing professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “Maeda writes with a bravado that can whisper through firework booms. Her poems are bildungsroman that offer possibilities for old ideas about where knowledge comes from,” said Judge Taransky.

 

Emi’s work has appeared in the NY 条令报纸, The Rising Phoenix Review, The Kenyon 你ng Writer's Anthology and more, and she is the first-place winner of the Charlotte Miller Poetry Contest. The National 你th Poet Laureate Program identifies, celebrates and honors teen poets who exhibit a commitment to not just artistic 卓越 but also civic engagement, youth leadership and social justice.

 

The following are two of Emi’s poems:

 

Instead of being honest, 

let’s go to 杂货店,

where you’ll ask me 

something, and I’ll shake my head. 

I’ll try to say something along the lines 

盐和叶子. 但是线条结束了. 

And I’ll end up with a messy mouth.

It’ll be like I have your arms. 你 

有我的. But we’re both not quite sure 

how to use them, So they’re dangling. 

无用地. And a little awkwardly.

很有趣,对吧? 我会笑. 你不会.

Because I can’t explain the joke.

原谅我. It’s my first time in this 

国家. My father, your son, was too busy 

十六年. 十大外围app会走一遍 

水果区. 越过红毛丹 

that look like the itch in my throat,

Past the persimmons that are the color 

of the first and only kimono I’ve ever worn. 

Do you ever see someone familiar 

but can’t remember their name? 

That’s what forgetting a language is like. 除了

it’s your grandmother and you can’t remember

how to say I love you. 我写 

poems about you in words you’ll never 

理解. 这是一个. But still, we’ll leave 

杂货店. Salt, leaves, and plums 

手. Dump them in a pot and wait 

for them to pickle ‘till they shrivel red and sharp. 

When they’re finally ready, we’ll eat 

those sour plums, smiling through the flavor.

 

 

feeling like I had done 

something profound, I went 

 

天堂. 这是甲虫

treats me to a cup of coffee, 

 

说, 我的腿很冷. 

我向下看 

 

at people filled in with the color gold. 

golden teeth, golden pores.

 

stick figures stacked out

of love, joy, and whatever

 

your mother wanted you to have. 

我知道，我保证.

 

that there are people that must 

be hated, but I can admire

 

人手. 如果你

move far enough, you’ll see.

 

this is a species kind enough

埋葬他们的死者.