Young poets' winning words
Every year, when the entries start pouring in to the Monitor's Young Poets Contest, the editors are as excited as the young people who've entered their work. In the hundreds and hundreds of poems we read, we see so much creativity and originality. It's inspiring!
Thanks to everyone who entered, and congratulations to the seven top winners, which were chosen by poet Elizabeth Lund.
Notebook
Two butterfly wings
White
With gentle streaks of blue
Spreading out.
Dark metal body
Glittering
In the morning sun
Let her fly
With the imprint
The memory of words
Written on the thin
Delicate white
With veins of blue
Soaring
Through the infinite space of thought
Riding the breezes
Of imagination,
Drifting
From flower
To bright-colored flower
Of budding words,
Ideas
Speckling the white
Blue-streaked wings
With dust
Of a lead pencil
Marking the paths
Of its travels
Michal Goderez
8th grade
My FFA Jacket
In this lives me
Each stitch a memory
Every wrinkle an experience
Its form molded to a perfect fit
At the touch of its corduroy
Confidence is pumped through my veins
My horizon is endless
When I look through into its blue and gold
Though I will always remember
What has happened in my jacket
As it slips down off my shoulders
A part of my soul is hung in the closet
Kalispell, Mont.
12th grade
Winterdream
My mind is the only place
Where I can trot across
A snowy driveway.
In my mind
I can scoop up precious snowflakes
And consume their forceful cold.
In my mind
My dad asks me to shovel the walkway
But I don't mind one bit.
In my mind
There is always need for hot cocoa
With plenty of whipped cream.
In my mind
My cheeks are always a deep
and powerful pink.
In my mind
I must venture outside to find
The best firewood from the stack.
In my mind
I can make snow angels
forever.
But in San Diego
all I've got are sunny skies
And lovely weather.
Elena Horvitz
11th grade
My Favorite Place
I come from rich country fields
I come from burrowed cottages within the shire
I come from cool days
bringing nights of energetic warmth
The winters around crackling fireplaces,
summers in the orchards and ponds.
Where I come from, mills and rivers can always be heard
The land smells of earthy manure
and various wildflowers.
I come from a place of old folk tales and legendary myths
Cow pastures surround the mountains
and split winding rivers.
At night choruses of yelping coyotes take over
I come from the mountains
Waitsfield, Vt.
12th grade
Mother to Daughter*
Well, girl, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no Hollywood movie.
It's had terrible actors in it,
And disappointing endings,
And horrible scripts,
And directors with no sense of humor –
Outrageous.
But all the time
I'se been a-waitin' for that perfect part,
And practicin' my lines,
And takin' on the fans,
And sometimes when the paparazzi are out of control
Where they just don't leave you alone.
So, girl don't you stop actin' out those parts.
Don't stop livin' your life.
'Cause you find it's kinder hard to go on.
Don't you give up now –
For I'se still believe in you, honey,
I'se still actin',
And life for me ain't been no Hollywood movie.
*After Langston Hughes's "Mother to Son"
Danielle Diersing
5th grade
November
It stumps in like a bear
Devouring everything in sight
Leaving trees and bushes bare
Small animals run into their home for a while
It's no longer safe outside
He has arrived
Brian Welty
Kalispell, Mont.
12th grade
Untitled
Be the earth that you walk on
Be the sky that you seek
Be the moon that you dream of
And you will be the stars that shine so bright
Just be
Just be
Just be yourself
Israel Dellamas
Whitethorn, Calif.
3rd grade
