Winnipeg high schooler captures frustration of pandemic life in impassioned poem – Winnipeg | The Canadian News

A Winnipeg teacher is highlighting a poem by a Grade 11 student that left her speechless.

Maeve Savage, who teaches at JH Bruns Collegiate in Southdale, told 680 CJOB that the passionate piece – entitled ‘Too Much Time’ by student Emma Wallis – gave her goosebumps due to its reflection on a teenager’s experience during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“They were doing a spoken word free verse unit, and they had to create their own on some sort of passion – something that made them angry, or happy… something that they loved,” said Savage.

“They studied some different free verse poets, professional ones and amateur ones.

“Emma went above and beyond with hers. She took it a step further and she studied some more free verse poetry and how they speak and when they pause, and it was quite amazing. ”

Wallis said her passion for slam poetry and its performative aspects led to the creation of the piece, as did a reflection on how different life seemed for teens pre-pandemic – as depicted in popular culture from decades past.

“It’s about COVID and how it affects me as a teenager,” she said, “but I was also thinking about how social media is really focusing on what’s new in TV and movies… but through my entire COVID experience, I was just watching old movies, classic Y2K movies.

“There were so many references and crazy ideas going on in these movies, and I thought, ‘wouldn’t this be much better than what’s going on (now)?’

“And then I wrote about it.”

The finished piece, totaling more than 660 words and around four minutes in length when read aloud, had an immediate impact on Wallis’ teacher, who said she shared it with “so many people.”

“When Emma wrote this, I cried, I laughed, I had goosebumps, and I thought, this needs to be heard. We need to hear from our young people, ”said Savage.

“Most students, when you say, ‘we’re going to talk about poetry,’ they groan – but with free verse poems, it’s different, because it allows the kids to express themselves, especially with everything going on in our world.”

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