Licking Heights senior Jessie Khuu is an award-winning poet–and she didn’t even know it.
Last month, Khuu earned second place in the high school division of The Ohio State University’s Kentucky and Ohio Sijo Competition. Sijo is a form of traditional Korean poetry that includes three lines of 14 to 16 syllables, often with a focus on romantic, metaphysical or spiritual themes.
“Having to focus on the amount of syllables placed in each line and for the overall poem makes the sijo style stick out to me,” Khuu says. “Writing it felt like a restriction but also led me to be even more creative with my words, which I really enjoyed feeling.”
OSU’s East Asian Studies Center, in partnership with the Korea Foundation, sponsors the annual competition. Students from elementary, middle and high schools across the states of Kentucky and Ohio are welcome to enter. Khuu will receive a $150 cash prize for her sijo.
Khuu says she learned about the sijo style and the competition from her World History teacher, Mrs. Amy Obhof. While she might not be an avid writer, Khuu says she has always had an interest in creative writing.
“I really love all sorts of creative arts and love the idea of being able to express yourself through multiple different forms,” she says. “I find myself finding interest in all sorts of creative works and am always willing to personally appreciate them or try them out.”
For inspiration, Khuu turned to her AP Chemistry class. The idea of opposites attracting interests her, and she wanted to express her passion for trying something new through the contrast of oil and water. Khuu says the blending of unexpected substances is symbolic of her stepping out of her comfort zone to enter the competition.
“Many see water and oil as parallels that don't have the chance of mixing. They always seem like they will stay separate. But they actually can mix, through emulsion,” she says. “Like unexpected occurrences, life can always find a way to surprise you and you could find yourself liking something you would have never thought you would.”
Read Khuu’s Sijo below:
Mixing oil and water, its dispersed, not harmonious.
Parallels, they’ll never mix. They’re meant to be immiscible.
You and me, we’ll dance together. Let’s experience emulsion.