Deryn Mierlak, an 8th grader at Mount Hebron Middle School, has won a Gold Key award in the 2012 Scholastic Art & Writing Contest.

Mierlak won for her poem (below) titled Native Land.

"The inspiration was the cover of a book called Song of the Wanderer," said Mierlak, who's always enjoyed writing poetry.

The complete list of Gold Key, Silver Key, and Honorable Mention recipients—which includes several Montclair students—is now online here. Works that receive Gold Keys are automatically forwarded for national judging.

Since 1923, the awards have recognized some of America's most celebrated artists while they were teenagers, including: Andy Warhol, Richard Avedon, Cy Twombly, Robert Indiana, Kay WalkingStick, Philip Pearlstein, and John Baldessari.

Meanwhile, here is Mierlak's gorgeous poem:

Native Land

There is a place

Where you can buy moonshine and dragon’s teeth

In ebony boxes.

And rivers made of silver cut through the earth

Like a knife through stone.

And gold is for fools

While coal is for rich.

And you can love without fear

And happiness blooms like a flower.

This is my native land.