Our 2024 Recipient: Cierra Blair

A graduate of Regina Christian School, Cierra will be majoring in English at the University of Alberta. The Scholarship judges found her poetry to be outstanding among the entries from across the province, exhibiting a remarkable level of skill and maturity.

She writes, “This award has been incredibly uplifting for me in that it has encouraged and validated my love of writing and poetry. I greatly appreciate the support this award has given me and the belief in me that it represents.”

this is where i’ll make my bed

 

Come out of your ivory towers

You say words are violence, so they are the only weapons you take to battle the oppression of the people around you but they’re starting to look dull. Are they borrowed?

 

Walk through the valley of ashes

I know you made that petition to end homelessness but you still haven’t told me what size apron you’ll need to volunteer at the soup kitchen.

 

Bring a torch to the valley of the shadow of death

I know about the statistics, I’m well versed in the analytics of struggle, but that little girl is my reality so pass me a colouring book and help me keep her from becoming another piece of your collected data. Keep the smile on her face and the wonder in her eyes and her life story out of a police report.

 

Clear a path through the bramble and thorns, mark the trail with stones and pages

I pray for the end of oppression in the same breath that I urge everyone to pick up a book and read about it. Action goes hand in hand with understanding. Progress follows remembrance. Lest we forget; lest we doom ourselves to repetition.

 

Fight for your brothers and sisters, the family you choose is the one you protect

I refuse to let the blood of my people spill before my own. We may not share genes, those ladders built into our cells that spiral like your curls, might not match, but the friendship bracelet you made me in the third grade carries more weight to it than a forest of family trees.

 

It’s an uphill battle to reach the hill you’ll die on

Life is the most memorable when it isn’t easy. The meaning is in completing the challenge. To strive, to conquer, to defend. To believe in justice and lay your life down for another. There is no greater love than this.