By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — Trinity Rucker said she found poetry to be a powerful coping mechanism as she dealt with the isolation of pandemic lockdowns in early 2020.
What her teachers found was that Rucker, now 13, had power in her words that defy her youth.
“You could just see her life experience play out. … She has a vivid vocabulary beyond her years,” said Bianka Serna, who taught Rucker in fourth, fifth and sixth grades at Maria Montessori in Rockford. “Everything she writes, it just has power behind it.”
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Rucker, who is now a seventh grader at Maria Montessori, was named the city’s new youth poet on Monday at City Hall.
She is the third person to hold the city’s title of youth poet, succeeding Kaila Anderson and Giulyana Gamero. The youth poet serves a one-year term, while the city’s poet laureate holds the role for two years. Jenna Goldsmith is now starting her second year as poet laureate.
“It’s such a huge honor and I’m forever grateful for everyone who pushed me and supported me thus far,” Rucker said.
Both poets serve as ambassadors to the arts, helping bring poetry to places across the city. Rucker hopes to host workshops for aspiring poets and poetry readings at local homeless shelters.
“I really, really want to get out in the community and help people realize that poetry isn’t as boring as people believe it to be,” Rucker said. “I want to help people realize that there is so much greatness in each and every one of us.”
Rucker’s poetry received an honorable mention in the Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards, where her first poem was published. She has a free-flowing style that’s drawn from personal experience.
“She’s gone through a lot of hard stuff in her life that, unfortunately, kind of calloused her a little bit,” Serna said. “But she sees the beauty in all of that.”
Rucker said she started to get interested in poetry in 2020.
“Being locked inside the house, it was very easy to get trapped inside of my own thoughts and just really get down on myself,” she said.
On Monday, she read a poem called “The Lord” before City Council and earned the praise of Mayor Tom McNamara.
“I can’t believe you’re in seventh grade,” he said. “I wish I was as mature and put together as you are.”
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas