When Oak Heights teacher Melissa Kruzel delivered an assignment to write a poem to her sixth-graders, she got more than she expected – a prize-winner.
One of her students, Skyler Ericksen, turned in a poem entitled “The Ballad of the Wandering Soul,” was selected as a winner from dozens of entries in the Oregon Poetry Association’s 2025 Cascadia Youth Poetry Contest.
The assignment came during National Poetry Month – April, Kruzel and Skyler said.
“One…