When students write poetry, they often pick lofty topics, such as love or war. When Kristian Au writes poetry, she sticks to something more down-to-earth: going barefoot in Lai'e.

"Going barefoot is the type of person I am," Au said. "So writing about it connects me to other people."

Au, an 11th-grade student at Kahuku High and Elementary School, will be one of 70 Hawai'i students honored today as winners of the annual Star Poets contest, which this year drew more than 3,000 entries from across the state.

Organizers and teachers say it's no accident that many of the winning works will be just like Au's, poems about the everyday things students know best, including their families and the places they hang out.

"The thing I love about this contest is that you don't have to have big ideas. You don't need to be writing about love or pain. Sometimes the best poetry comes from being specific and concrete," said Pam Palmer, Au's language arts teacher at Kahuku, where three other high school students will receive Star Poet awards this year.

The contest, which has grown from just a few hundred entries to thousands in recent years, gives aspiring poets at every grade level a chance to be recognized and to read their works beyond the classroom, said Libby Young, a journalism professor at Windward Community College, who founded and still helps run the annual event.

"We were especially happy because there seems to be a lot more winners this year among the public schools," Young said. "It's a connection we've been trying to make. We've been telling students that you can write about anything in your home town or daily life. You don't have to look to the Mainland for your ideas."

That concept and the contest got an extra boost this year when former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser visited Hawai'i and conducted several poetry workshops with local teachers. Kooser's poems all deal with everyday aspects of his life, be it sitting on a porch late at night or just watching a dog sleep.

Palmer said she and many other teachers use the annual contest, now in its seventh year, as a way to incorporate poetry writing into the school's regular curriculum, offering new variety and structure to the regular teaching duties.

This year, she said, the contest sort of crept up on them, giving students just a few weeks after Christmas to come up with their poems. "They didn't have a lot of time to polish things; they had to do everything in a short time," she said.

For Au, that was even more reason to write about what she knew best. "I like to be able to express myself, but the words can't always come at the right time," Au said. "But when there's something that I want to talk about, poetry offers a good way to express myself and share it with other people."

Other winners took a similar approach. 'Iolani 10th-grader Elysia Gabe wrote about her mom. One third-grader wrote about her mom and dad, both of whom had been deployed to Iraq. One group of Kaua'i students wrote about their field trip to Koke'e.

"The quality of the entries is getting better every year," Young said.

And the use of poetry in the classrooms pays off in other ways, she added. "There's a direct connection between creativity and better test scores. We've been able to demonstrate that teaching poetry in the schools can enhance literacy and make students more motivated in the other things they do," Young said.

Palmer said the contest, sponsored by Starbucks Hawaii and Windward Community College, offers students a rare chance to be recognized for their work outside of the classroom. The winners' poems are published in the Star Poets Journal, available in all Starbucks stores statewide.

Reach Mike Leidemann at mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.