Winning poetry

December 19, 2000

Back in October, we invited "Kidspace" readers to submit poems for our fifth annual young people's poetry contest. We hoped you would flood us with poems again - and you did! We received nearly 1,500 of them. Entries came from all over the United States, and a few from Great Britain and Belgium.

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! We were delighted with the variety of styles and topics that poets used.

To those of you who provided a stamped, self-addressed envelope: We'll send out your "I'm a poet" buttons next month. Cats

Jingle, jingle

Jump around

Eat sleep make no sound

T. Williams Grade 6 Denver, Colo.

Ode to my big black boots

Swing

hip to hip

struttin' it

down the hallway

knee-high

Zzzzzip

black

short skirt

tube top

big black boots

Alissa McCue Grade 11 Waitsfield, Vt.

My heart divided

Dreading it all day

only once in a lifetime

Is it my birth mom?

Do I look like her?

Is she tall, skinny, short, pretty?

I am so anxious

People playing drums

firecrackers all night long

buildings all lit up

She is so pretty

I wish I could've had more time

even though it was pouring

I feel so lucky

related to someone alive

What about my birth dad?

I am still BEAMING!

Never will forget that day

My heart divided

Rae Reilly Grade 6 Denver, Colo.

Daddy's little girl

I'm my daddy's little girl.

And my daddy told me,

he borrowed a little piece of the sun,

waited until it cooled,

then made me just the way

he wanted me ...

looking like him

(with a little bit of Mommy added).

And the sun he borrowed

is why my face lights up so bright

when I smile,

and why all of me is so sunshiny.

And my girlfriend said

she's her daddy's little girl.

And her daddy told her

he cut her out of some midnight,

with a cookie cutter he got

from her mommy.

He cut her out of midnight,

because that's his favorite,

most fun time.

That's why she is all

of his happiness ...

especially when she smiles,

letting the moon shine

and the stars flash

across her face.

And my other girlfriend, she said

she's her daddy's little girl.

And her daddy told her

that he calls her Honey,

because one day he had a sweet tooth.

So he had her mommy gather up all

the flowers she could,

and gave those flowers

to a whole lot of worker bees.

Those bees buzzed around

and buzzed around

until they designed her sweet enough

to fill his tooth

with her honey-drop kisses ...

fill his heart

with her honey-shined face ...

and fill his life

with her honeycomb smile.

So my girlfriends and I decided

our daddies sure went to a lot of trouble

to make us their little girls.

We guess that's why we love them so much.

Thank you, God ... and mommies

for helping them out....

We love you, too!

Natashia LaChance Grade 8 South China, Maine

As her wings

spread across the sunset sky:

you are beautiful

Mother Butterfly

Mercedes Kilmer Grade 3 Los Angeles, Calif.

Lost

Paper flapping at my face.

I am Lost.

Images fill my mind.

I am Lost.

Time has no meaning.

I am Lost.

I hear no disturbances.

I am Lost.

Then I hear someone calling my name.

The spell is broken.

I close the book, and I am Found.

Amy Grelck Grade 7 Palatine, Ill.

Shadow

Quick and sly

very shy ...

but never far behind!

Kyle Baldwin

Grade 5

Suisun, Calif.

The playground

It's silent on the playground.

It's like a graveyard.

The swings aren't moving.

Scott Voyt Grade 3 Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society