BG students win DM in poetry 2024

The winning poems with the titles "Supernova", "Life's ABC" and "Snow, my first word" are about such different things as a star's existential journey, about personal growth, the transience of life and memories and sensory experiences associated with winter. Kaia Devi Permanand's poem "Snow, my first word" revolves around the memory of the I's first word snow: "I listen, I point, I repeat/Snow my first word". It is so concise at word level that the reader gets the feeling that all words are being tried out or remembered for the first time. Elsewhere, Kaia Devi Permanand creates images, although the language is still kept in the concise form (translated from danish):

Kaia Devi Permanand's poem gives associations to the author Rasmus Nicolajsen, who in the poems in "Back to nature" (2016), also circles around the act of putting something into words. As in the poem "Enghaven, 18 August 2013", where I sigh: "And alas, who could write a poem about roses that was just about roses." It's as if Kaia Devi Permanand's poem mimes: 'Who could just write a poem about snow, that was just about snow?' as the poem shows. The poem "Supernova" by Flora Gustafsson is about the existential journey of a star, where it describes the relationship with its planets and its own role in the universe. The star sees itself as a central figure who gives warmth and life to its planets, but also one who struggles with loneliness, frustration and guilt when its efforts to help them fail (translated from danish):

In Flora Gustafsson's poem, where a supernova is the poem's lyrical self, we as readers meet a star that, despite its best intentions, ends up destroying what it wanted to protect, and itself falls apart in a kind of cosmic collapse. It is a powerful metaphor for loss, regret and the struggle to find meaning when everything seems out of control. Julie Groes Christiansens has created a poem that has arisen out of a significant leg span: Use the entire alphabet and let each new line of verse begin with the next letter in the alphabet. The poem is thus structured as an alphabetical sequence, where each letter representation covers different aspects of life's ups and downs, reflections on self-development and existential thoughts (translated from danish):

Julie Groes Christiansen's poem puts into words the pressure it can sometimes be just to live life, when at the same time you can feel that you must always develop, perform and only rest softly in your bed when it is time. Life is portrayed as a cycle where you have to accept its ups and downs: "Eat it up and start again". In short, it is "Life's ABC", as the title of the poem reads.

Several students from the creative writing club at Birkerød Gymnasium participated in DM in poetry 2024. In the run-up to the deadline, the students had the opportunity to get writing ideas, guidance and criticism on their poems from Danish teacher June Clausager Thomsen.

Every year, several hundred young people between the ages of 16 and 19 from all over the country take part in the competition, which is run by Vallekilde College and the Danish Writers' Association. Each year, the judges select a maximum of 20 young people who win a weekend writing course at Vallekilde High School. On the weekend writing course, the winners will have the opportunity to further develop their talent, meet other young people who enjoy writing, and they will receive teaching from professional writers in creative writing.

Students in BG's creative writing club have previously won DM titles in both short story writing and poetry, but the special thing is that as many as three BG students are among those selected this year. It went fantastically well.