Calling All Young Poets

Time for the Monitor's third annual student-poetry contest! Last year we received 1,100 poems from across the United States. Now we're open for entries again.

Send us as many as three poems; you choose the subject. Remember to keep your focus narrow and your descriptions specific. Concrete details make a poem come alive. (See three of last year's winners below.)

Students in preschool through high school are eligible. Entries must be postmarked by Nov. 30. Be sure to enclose a business-size self-addressed, stamped envelope. We'll publish the winning poems in December.

Sunshine

On rainy days

Over a hill

Beyond the schools

Down the street

Up a hill

Around the trash cans

Is a house

Through the door

Up the stairs

Within a room

By the window

I wait

Jeffrey McVey

Grade 6

Car Ride at Night

Dark night, bright lights

Shimmery trucks passing by

Street lights shining high

Yellow, white, pretty lights

Happy sleepy car ride.

Zzzzzzzz

Peter Lepper

Age 4

What Is the Name

It's the water dripping on steel,

It's the phone ringing in the dark,

It's the crickets on a warm spring night,

It's the clock ticking away midnight,

It's the lamp swaying back and forth

to cast its frightening shadows,

It's the wind outside to tell you a tale

of storm and rain.

Its name

is noise -

I would have called it

music.

Brandee Hansen

Grade 5