For someone still in middle school when she won the Junior Division of the Kent County Poetry Contest in 2007, April Reeder is an amazing poet. Her concept of rhythm and the ‘flow’ of her poetry is something one would expect from a much older and experienced writer. She is an extremely friendly, fascinating person to talk to and at the end of our interview it felt like we had been friends for many years.
April Reeder is about to enter eighth grade at Duncan Lake Middle School. At the time of my call she was packing to go on vacation to West Virginia and to Nebraska to go white water rafting. April keeps her hands full by playing softball and dancing, an activity she has participated in for eleven years. She also keeps busy by caring for her five cats and a dog named Madison. Her family rescued all of their pets off of the side of the road by their house. I asked if she had any idea of what she wanted to be when she grew up. At first she was unsure, but then she settled on being an orthodontist or a nurse.
When April told me that she wrote her poem “7 ways to look at an ipod” as a school assignment, I was impressed. She told me that she loves to write poetry and that their assignment was to make a poetry book mimicking the poems of their favorite poets. She really wanted an ipod and enjoyed Wallace Stevens’ blackbird poem so she combined the two ideas together and got an unbelievable result. April writes most of her poetry in a big poetry book she keeps at her house. She confessed that most of the poems were unfinished although they all contain ideas that she really likes.
Interviewing April was a pleasure. As the end of the interview was approaching I warned her that my most important question was coming up.
“Do you own an ipod?” I asked.
“Yes, it’s hot pink” she replied, and we both smiled as we hung up our phones.