To submit entries to the annual Poetry Contest held in April each year,
Past Winners:
Frozen
Sophie Stachulski (2020 Elementary School Contest Winner)
The world stopped spinning
Everything was silent,
The breeze stopped blowing the trees,
And the river stopped rolling along.
Everything was silent,
Oh, so very silent And Dark.
Just Like That.
Callie Valeri (2020 High School Contest Winner)
It’s funny how quickly a moment can go from thrilling to terrifying,
Just like that.
Laughter turns to screams
The world becomes so loud, yet so deafeningly silent.
The impact isn’t even the worst part,
But the pressure of the water overtaking my body and stealing my breath is what kills me.
I try to gasp for air
But to no avail.
Air turns to water and fills my lungs.
In my last moments I relive everything in my life up until now.
Every wrong decision
Every right one
Everything in between
Will the world miss me?
Or will I just be another unknown soul,
Gone?
Just like that.
The Power of Creation
Gabriel Smith -High School (2019 Poetry Contest Winner)
This world would most certainly cease to exist,
Had it not been for our Creation, our Genesis.
What makes us what we are is what we do,
And any idea without creation, could be quite askew.
For we are creators, in everything, and every day,
Someone had the idea, and put it into play,
From your new recipe
To a song melody
All that you can see
Was made by someone just like you or me.
Do you think Da Vinci thought his paintings
Would be famous, and fascinating?
His “Mona Lisa” is the most renowned –
Even centuries later, it still wears the crown.
From design and innovation
To the plane you ride to your vacation,
To towering cities and works of art,
From the car that won’t jumpstart,
To the curriculum that you use in school
And the tools that do the work for you,
Whatever it is you need to do,
It was made to make life easier, and you can do it, too.
You may not win a Nobel prize,
It even may be criticized,
But don’t give up, you’re not the only one,
Our work on Earth is never done.
Unconventional
Tobin Smith -Middle School (2019 Poetry Contest Winner)
Our beautiful country has existed
For 239 years to date.
If not for groundbreaking people,
Would we be brave enough to make?
Think of Leonardo Da Vinci,
With his wonderful thoughts and dreams.
If not for people like him,
We would be in the Stone Age, it seems.
Just imagine if Wilbur and Orville
Had stuck to making bikes,
If they hadn’t wondered, hadn’t made,
Would we ever have taken flight?
Imagine if good ol’ Walt Disney had
Never decided to make cartoons.
If he hadn’t made his movies,
Would we have shows with bug buffoons?
If Thomas Jefferson, a president,
Had never taken up in arms
The clever idea to write down
The declaration of freedom from English laws?
Yes, there’s no doubt that if we
Did everything in convention
We’d never come up with the
Fantastic word of something new: INVENTION.
So let us not relinquish
The good courage to create,
And take the job to do
Things new: more importantly, MAKE.
Unique
Lotus Gregory-Elementary (2019 Elementary Winner)
The tree branches sway in the milky glow of the full moon,
Casting a dancing shadow across the moss strewn earth.
This tree was different from the others in every way.
The branches protruded at odd angles,
the trunk was covered in knots and it was many feet shorter than the others.
It's beauty resonating in the air.
2018 YOung POets
A Communion with Nature
THE FOREST
Molly VanVranken. New London NH
5th grade, Winner Elementary School
The forest
is a mystical place
Where unicorns
And fairies fly
Where you are free
To imagine
And be at peace with the world.
The forest
Speaks to me through
It’s leaves and branches.
The forest
Protects me when it rains
It covers me so that
I’m not wet.
The forest
Is part of my
Soul and blood.
When I leave, the forest leaves.
When I go to school, the forest goes to school.
But at the end of the day
When I go to bed
The forest sleeps right next to me.
COMMUNION WITH NATURE
FOREST WALK
Clare McIntyre, Grantham NH
7th Grade, Winner Middle School
As I walk through the forest I am one with nature,
One with the birdsong that may sound chaotic, but if you listen closely you will find,
That it is a symphony of voices that fill the woods with meaning,
And as I walk through the many trees they talk to me, as I am one with them,
Telling me of the freezing winters where the frost crept over their bark,
And of the summers where the sun shone through their leaves,
and cast a green light upon the ground,
The suns rays dance that are one with me, leaping off the water,
and the mica in the rocks,
then they twirl in the air and fill the sky with light,
the sky calls to the adventurous kind,
those who will stop at nothing to learn nature’s secrets,
The sky calls out to me as I walk through the forest.
