A Penn State professor recently proved how rewarding poetry education can be.

Penn State Altoona assistant professor Erin Murphy won a $5,000 Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize for her poem "Inter--". Murphy's poem was one of 51 money-winners picked from a field of more than 600 entries.

"Often as a poet you're expected just to feel honored to have your work published for little or no money," Murphy said. "To be awarded $5,000 is very unusual and really an honor."

Although Murphy said her poem is about a prospective job applicant learning about a tragedy in her interviewer's life, the message is open to interpretation.

" I think poets in general tend to be the worst ones to characterize their own work," she said. "If people want to kind of wonder what's true and not true that's fine. I'd rather that the poem have its own life."

Bits and pieces of the poem were inspired by Murphy's real-life experiences as a budding journalist, but the piece gained inspiration from more than just one incident.

"Some of it is true to life but a lot of it is what we say in poetry classes is 'true to the poem.' So while it might not all be factual, the general spirit of the poem has a truth to it," Murphy said. "A lot of times as writer it's like a collage, we might read something here, see something on TV there; all of that together ends up with the collage of the finished poem. That's certainly the case in this poem."

Besides writing poetry, Murphy teaches English and creative writing at Penn State Altoona, where she serves as a faculty adviser to the school's literary magazine, Hard Freight.

"She gives great criticism and has a lot of ideas. She's obviously talented, you can tell that by her advice that she'll give you," said Amie Myers (senior-environmental management), who took Murphy's introductory poetry class last year. "This prize is further proof that she's really talented."

Murphy said she's interested in ekphrasis -- writing about visual art -- and she plans to use some of her prize money to visit different galleries and write poems about what she sees.

The prize is given through the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Fund, which was established by Marvin Rosenberg in honor of his late wife, Dorothy. The prize awards $10,000, $7,500, $5,000, $2,500 and $1,000 gifts to winning poets each year, as well as $100 honorable mention awards.

Murphy said she has had her work published and won poetry awards before. Her last prize was the Foley Poetry Award, which she won in May 2006.

Murphy's winning poem "Inter--" can be found online at www.dorothysargentrosenbergmemorialfund.org.