Youth anthology to include poem of junior

Noah Broussard challenged himself to see how many poems he could submit in one weekend.

That challenge paid off and a poem he submitted was selected for inclusion in the Austin International Poetry Festival Youth Anthology.

“I feel an immense sense of vindication in terms of my writing, as well as putting myself out there for submission,” said Broussard, a junior from Maurice at LSMSA. “It helps to feel that you are picked at least once.”

His poem, “Before Salvation,” was inspired by Dante’s Purgatorio and “seeing how people will put themselves through endless toil for the prospect of future acceptance.”

“While it can encompass many themes, the main one is mostly about craving divinity and seeing oneself as being separated from it,” he said.

Broussard has not always been interested in writing poetry, specifically.

“I was more interested in crafting short stories and novellas, but because of time restraints, I started to lean more toward poetry,” he said.

He has been invited to read his poem at the Austin International Poetry Festival to be held April 5-8.

AIPF is the country’s largest non-juried poetry festival. The goal of the annual four-day festival is to bring fresh voices to the stage to mix with voices of established poets from around the country and world.