My poet of the month for December is Allie Merkuris. She is a sophomore at Central High School. She is an incredibly talented poet; she speaks right from her heart and can make any emotion or anything she reads into great poetry. Those are all contributing factors to why I chose Merkuris for poet of the month. Here are some questions and answers that I asked during the interview with Merkuris.  

Kylee Fulkerson: What inspired you to write poetry? 

Allie Merkuris: One day, I was just reading poetry online, and I was feeling kind of sad that day, and I just started writing, and it turned into something great. 

KF: What is your greatest inspiration? 

AM: My greatest inspiration would probably be my dad or my grandpa because they always teach me [that] I can do whatever I put my mind to, and they teach me different life lessons every day, even if [they’re] just small. 

KF: How often do you write poetry? 

AM: I write every day; whether it is late at night or if I am just lying in bed, I write poetry. 

KF: What is your career choice? 

AM: My career choice is to be a teacher. 

KF: What type of teaching would you do? 

AM: I would like to teach elementary school students or beginning high school students because I feel like those are the most important times in your life, and I can relate more to them. 

KF: What would you like people to know about you? 

AM: Well, I’m a sophomore, I’m 15, I like to play basketball for fun, I love to read, and I write a lot, even if it’s not poetry. 

KF: How do you want your poetry to impact the world? 

AM: I just want to make people more aware of how people feel in certain situations. 

KF: What are your goals in life? 

AM: To become a teacher, have a family, go to college and get my master’s in teaching. 

KF: What are your strengths and weaknesses as a writer? 

AM: One of my strengths is being able to turn in anything into poetry. My weakness is sometimes I don’t feel inspired, and it’s sometimes hard to decide what to write about. 

KF: How did you feel when you wrote this poem? 

AM: I wrote this poem when I was in a class, and we read this sad story about this boy when he was younger, and it inspired me to write this poem about some things that happened in my life with people I know and love. 

KF: What is the message of your poem? 

AM: To make people realize how hard it is to get through certain situations in life. And to recognize that you never know what people are going through, and you just know.