Young poets share their winning words
Back in October, we invited "Kidspace" readers to submit poems for our sixth annual young people's poetry contest. We were hoping you would flood us with poems again - and you did. We received 1,800 in all. We were delighted.
Entries came from all over the United States, and a few from Great Britain and Canada. The poems were reviewed by three judges: Diana Der-Hovanessian, president of the New England Poetry Club; Maria Mazziotti Gillan, director of the Poetry Center in Paterson, N.J., and Elizabeth Lund, the Monitor's poetry editor.
Many thanks to everyone who participated!
And to those of you who provided a stamped, self-addressed envelope: We'll be sending out your "I'm a poet" buttons next month.
What is the ocean?
A cycle, a force.
A routine of waves moving in and out.
A landscape with no explanation,
changing its mind from day to day.
I too change like currents,
shallow and deep at the same time.
Dark and gloomy on some days,
bright and joyful on others.
There is an ocean inside me.
And in you?
Danielle See
Grade 7
Stoneham, Mass.
In my front yard
I'm going to plant flowers
To make the world beautiful.
Michael Chau
Grade 1
Lincoln, R.I.
how they move
one quick step
at a time
FLASH! FLASH! flash.
they unfold and
dance in
the strangest
step way
frail paper bodies
like lanterns
carefully glued
piece by piece
until nothing
falls or
breaks but
holds
hard against
the sweetest cloth
NUISANCE!
one would think
they move, pause, move
like a telegraph (STOP)
black-bugged urgency
dot dash
it tries but
no one sees -
understands its
solitary dance.
L.R. Hall
Grade 9
Lexington, Ky.
The cars were glimmering
The sky
deep purple
with streaks of
red, white, and blue
The cars
all seemed
to turn like the sky
No matter what color
they were
All
one
big splash
of
tie-dye
in the
desert
sunset
Nikke Jan Ault
Grade 8
Valparaiso, In.
I look back
at you staring.
I have no eyes but
I see you.
Can you guess
who I am?
Why do you put on
so much makeup?
Why do you keep
staring at me?
If you look at me
one more time
I will crack.
Helen Tisserant
Grade 6
Cambridge, Mass.
Brave firefighters
Hero's hands
Dusty rubble
TEARS
Let them out.
Memories
Of heroes long past,
Don't give up.
We will fight.
We will win.
God bless America.
The song of the USA
Is the sound
That brings us together.
When things look hopeless
We find light from
The Red
The White
And
The Blue.
TEARS
Let them out.
Mason Popp
Grade 6
Phoenix, Ariz.
