Chelleby Cassidy is in grade six at Mount St. Agnes and only 12 years old. And she is already a published poet.

February was Holocaust and Black History Month, and the grade six class at MSA were asked by their teacher, Ms. Faria, to write a poem about these subjects.

Chelleby Cassidy's poem was so good that Ms. Faria brought her up to the front of the class -- so good that when her cousin Vairi Cassidy read it, she insisted that Chelleby enter it into a poetry competition on the Internet at the site www.poetry.com. Chelleby submitted her poem `Slavery and Freedom' over the Net in March.

In April she received a letter from poetry.com saying that her poem had been chosen from amongst thousands of others to appear in a new poetry anthology entitled `The Silence Within'.

She was further informed that she is now entered as a semi-finalist in the International Open Poetry Contest, where her poem is being compared to poems by writers of all different ages and nationalities.

She will find out sometime this month if she has won any of the prizes, including an Annual Grand Prize of $10,000.

Her cousin Vairi Cassidy had previously submitted work to the same Internet site, and had also been accepted and considered a semi-finalist in the International Open Poetry Contest.

Twelve year old Chelleby said she wants to be a teacher when she grows up.

Slavery & Freedom We were held we were shipped If we were bad we got whipped We are Black we are White We do our best to make life right Freedom comes and freedom goes Does the future exist nobody knows Life is better life is good Love everybody in your neighbourhood (c) Chelleby Rose Cassidy