© 2024 WLRN
MIAMI | SOUTH FLORIDA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
00000173-d94c-dc06-a17f-ddddb3f20000The Public Insight Network is all about listening to you. It relies on your personal experiences and expertise.Click here to sign up and tell us a little about yourself. Your knowledge informs the newsroom. We'll send you an occasional email asking if you have personal experience or expertise on a story we are covering. The information goes to our Public Insight Network analyst, Katie Lepri, who will look for coverage ideas as well as potential sources. You may then be contacted with further questions or for a formal interview. Any information you provide is confidential and is not used for marketing, fundraising or advertising purposes. Anything you tell us will only be published with your permission by the Miami Herald Media Company, which includes El Nuevo Herald and WLRN. Learn more about our confidentiality and privacy policy. Below, take a look at the stories network participants have helped inform.

Winners Of Our 'That's So Miami' Poetry Contest

Love or hate Miami, the subject inspired so many beautiful, thoughtful and sometimes even funny verses for our "That's So Miami" project. It was impossible for us to pick the best.  So we asked you to do it!   

Based on your online votes, here are the five category winners and their poems: 

Best Ode to Miami Spanglish - Lauren Fernandez, Miami

Exciting and Extravagant.
Guajiros in Bentleys.
Tostones and Champagne.
That’s so Miami.

Best Ode to Miami Food - Cristina Rodriguez, Miami

Thanksgiving in Miami

My cousin brought the sweet potatoes,
my aunt brought the congri,
my brother brought the yuca
and my uncle the black beans.

There also was a turkey
the best I have ever done
the reason being that it almost taste like pork.

But this carbohydrate feast waste not the biggest thing
the main ingredient was
the love of all involved in it.

That's so Miami.

Best Ode to Miami Traffic - Marcus Cade, Miami Shores

Exit ramp back up,
Losers wait; I cut in front -
That's so Miami

Best Ode to Miami's Flaws - Dylann Turffs, Coral Gables

February newspaper says
on-the-job cops

are ignoring emergencies
to drink cortaditos & Florida sun

today on the way home
I passed a car accident

white sedan curved around pole
white van engine folded in

nearby a detective
leans back & sucks a cigar

I think to myself: at least he showed up

That's so Miami.

Best Ode to Miami - Arlo Haskell, Key West

That’s so Miami can see
its way from the bottom
of the bay to crawl across
the streets,” she said,
when I asked
about the lights
that run the edge
of the swamps down west.
“But so much light
makes adjacent darkness
darker,” I said. “That’s
right,” she said. “And vice
versa. Blindness brought
by surfeit of light
is my kind of
night. Stars scrape
it like gravel
in knees and elbows,
skitter across it like storm-
tossed flying fish
on the sand.”

The prize for the Best Ode to Miami was provided by The Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Betsy-South Beach.  Thanks also to the Betsy for the gift bags awarded to the winners for Best Ode to Miami Traffic, Best Ode to Miami Food, Best Ode to Miami Spanglish and Best Ode to Miami's Flaws.  

Daniel Rivero is part of WLRN's new investigative reporting team. Before joining WLRN, he was an investigative reporter and producer on the television series "The Naked Truth," and a digital reporter for Fusion. He can be reached at drivero@wlrnnews.org
More On This Topic