Ashley Gong, a Newtown High School junior and one of five 2014 National Student Poet Ambassadors, is looking forward to sharing her love of poetry with area students in grades 6-8 at the “Po(w)e (r)try” workshop, four Monday evenings, beginning May 18, at C.H. Booth Library.

The National Student Poets Program, launched in 2012, is the “nation’s highest honor for youth poets presenting original work,” according to whitehouse.gov. The five student poets are selected for “exceptional creativity, dedication to craft and promise” in their works.

While the May series at the town library is her first workshop in the area, Ashley presented a workshop over April break to high school students in Buffalo, N.Y. The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities arranged that workshop, she said, and it was a great experience. In that workshop, students created poems based on pop song lyrics, with each student building upon lines written by another. Another writing prompt asked poets to select from random verbs, nouns, and adjectives to create original poetry, using as many of the selected words as practical.

“The most important thing about teaching [other students],” said Ashley, “is probably to establish a connection. It helps the kids to be engaged and responsive if we connect over music or something. It’s one way to keep the workshop relevant.”

She is surprised to find herself a poet, she said this week. Her love of verse began only two years ago.

“I was really into prose, reading it and writing it. When I discovered poetry, though, I was really drawn to it,” she said.

Her own poems are “almost hybrid,” Ashley said, using everything from the preamble to the Constitution to the structure of a table of contents for inspiration. Merging unlike things and ideas creates new works for this young poet. She is inspired by mathematical, historical, musical, and scientific ideas, she said, and the interactions between imperialistic concepts and humanistic ideas.

“I might be sitting on a bus, or about to fall asleep, and a word or phrase will come into my head. I’m inspired by my surroundings,” she said.

Her attention to the art of writing has resulted in winning the 2013 Connecticut State PTA Reflections contest in high school literature, and the 2014 National Scholastic Gold Medal Award, as well.

Workshop participants will have the opportunity to share their work and receive feedback, but more importantly, it is about the appreciation of poetry, Ashley said.

She will use various writing prompts to help workshop participants draw from their own surroundings. Chatting with the other four current National Student Poets, as well as alumni, has given her ideas for her workshops. She also draws from books of poetry exercises for inspiration in her own workshops.

“This year, I’ve been exposed to many influences. I find myself more willing to take risks with my work, in the form, syntax, and even the language,” Ashley said. She hopes to pass on her fearlessness in adventuresome writing with the workshop participants. She will share her thoughts on the writing process, as well.

“As simple as it sounds,” she said, “one of the first things that’s important about writing, I think, is not being afraid to take the thoughts in your head and transfer them to paper.” She also recommends that other aspiring poets read a diverse range of other poets. “For me, it has made me more experimental [in writing],” said Ashley.

The goal of every National Student Poet Ambassador is to “spread poetry as a means of creative expression,” she said, and community projects such as the upcoming workshop are an important means of doing so.

Community service projects are meant to have personal meaning, as well. For Ashley, who grew up in Sandy Hook, she sees her workshops as a means of spreading empathy, post-12/14.

“Poetry allows people to understand themselves and each other, and to create a communal empathy. I feel that teaching these poetry workshops is a way of honoring the legacy of creating positive change that was left after 12/14. I see using poetry to bring the community together, using the arts to build positive bonds,” she said. “Hopefully, the workshop will help people to do this,” she added.

If the workshop is well received, Ashley would like to continue the series through the summer.

The Po(w)e(r)try workshop runs from Monday, May 18, through Monday, June 15, with no class on Memorial Day, May 25. Classes run from 6:30 to 7:30 pm, and meet in the Antiques Room on the third floor of the library. There is no charge for the series, but registration is required, at chboothlibrary.org.