Baker student receives 29 scholastic writing awards: Read her Gold Key winning poem

Rachel Blake is a senior at C.W. Baker High School and an award-winning writer.
 
Winners of the Northeast region of the 2020 Scholastic Writing Awards competition were announced last month and Rachel received 29 awards for her writing.
 
Rachel won 10 Gold Key Awards, which are given to the very best works. She received 8 Sliver Key Awards, which are stand-out works submitted that demonstrate exceptional ability. Rachel was also awarded 11 Honorable Mentions, which are given to accomplished works that show great skill.
 
Rachel won awards in the categories of Short Story, Sci-Fi Fantasy, Poetry, Personal Essay and Flash Fiction.
 
Here’s one of Rachel’s Gold Key winning poems:
 

“Fun with Alliteration”
 
I've been waiting. 
Too long, too dark, 
What am I waiting for? 
Inspiration. 
Music to swell and lift me, 
Sound swirling calligraphy ink notes 
Onto pages pressing for prose. 
Words like razors to slice my skin
Red rubies welling from reminiscent wounds 
And dripping sweet scarlet secrets 
Forming pages of pained poetry pulsing with passion.
Pricks of poison to steep my skin 
Drawing out life to illustrate illusions 
Ingrained in my brain. 
 Banter breathing ballads brimming with bitterness 
What am I waiting for? 
Colors. 
Cream and crimson, cerulean and sage 
Dusky dawn igniting my night. 
Hapless hazel teeming with tears 
Bittersweet blooms of pale pink and pearl 
Vivid verde and gilded gold 
Leaves littering lingering memories 
Made of mellow mauve melted and melded 
into maybes and what-could-have-beens. 
Gloomy gray of gathering clouds 
Grasping at fleeting figments of fractured feelings 
Hailing from hazy hues on the horizon. 
What am I waiting for? 
I'm not. 
I'm hardly waiting, I'm wading into waters well beyond where 
Seemingly stagnant streams stretched from my saddened eyes and existed 
Only within the well of my walled off heart. 
The depths drench me, dragging me deep down 
But I flail from their fleeting fingers 
I can float, I can fly!
Windkissed wings whisper in the wake of my fevered flight 
No failures tonight!

 
 
In all, twenty-four Baker students received a total of 62 awards in the Northeast region of the 2020 Scholastic Writing Awards competition. The competition is open to students in grades 7-12. Gold Key winners are automatically considered for national-level recognition, to be announced later this year. Click here to see list of winners.