2007 Poetry Contest Winners
Middle School:
Reshina Allen – First Place
WNBA All The Way
WNBA all the way
That’s what I say everyday
With the ball in my hands
While I try to shoot a three
Me being as tall as a tree
Watch while I bend my knees
As you can see I’m doing it with ease
WNBA that’s what I say everyday
Running up and down the court
With my blue and white shorts
You can see that I love this sport
WNBA that’s what I say everyday
I concentrate I don’t hesitate
I’m really focused
In my eyes I’m going to make it
This is my life
This is no hocus pocus
WNBA that’s what I say everyday
As I grip the ball to make the winning shot
I focus on the backboard
The ball says swish
Through the net out my hands
My eyes get large
Before I do my basketball dance
WNBA all the way
That’s what I say
Believe it.
George Witter, Jr. – Second Place
The Dog
Lady
Lying in the sun
Stretched out
Comfy
In her
Black and white
Fur
With muddy paws
Just coming home
From her long
Walk
And when the
Sun moves
She will get up
To move with
The sun
To fall
Back
Asleep
Again
Elena Jay – Third Place
+ = x Numbers x = +
I scream
Inside
The numbers blur
I don’t want to think
I can’t think
This algebra lab is due
Tomorrow
Tomorrow
I surrender
Flip on the TV.
Good evening
Welcome to eyewitness
News
At ten
107 people killed today
Outside of iraq
By a suicide bomber
They say people
Like the lifeless are pieces of
Trash
In the gutter
Completely worthless
I imagine the people
Across the ocean
In a foreign land
So different from my own
I hear them
Cry
Scream
Plead
Pray
And fight
The pain and sorrow that I should feel
Hides within me like a shadow in the dark of the night
107 people killed
107 people killed
107 people killed
I close my eyes
I yearn for pain
But again that emotion lingers
I don’t know these people
They aren’t special to me
But they once were
To someone else
I leap for the remote
Turn it off
I look down at my paper
Smudged
A storm on a rainy day
I reach for my pencil
Grip my weapon
Y= 2x + -1 smiles up at me
With the courage I never knew I had
I tackle my algebra homework
High School:
Shirley Vasquez – First Place
Who Am I?
I am Shirley
And the only thing that could describe my life
Is a crazy journey.
Fifteen, young, and Puerto Rican, that’s me
Growing with good and bad
As you can see.
Don’t misjudge me
Just because of race and skin
Because I’m going to make it
To the very end.
Dressed like a “hoodlum”
Ghetto you could say
But I oppose
I just say clothes are clothes
So they shall stay.
Don’t judge me for my clothes, race, or skin
Nor if I’m fat or even thin.
Don’t judge me for style, jewelry, or shoes
And do not gossip for old news.
Judge me for who I am
And not for what I have.
Don’t judge me for my background
Or family problems in the past.
When you look at me
Judge me for who I really am
A fifteen year old Puerto Rican girl
Who will succeed through her life span.
Catherine Rose – Second Place
INVISIBLE
I can be everywhere
And you wouldn’t even notice
I could be standing in front of you
And it would be as if I was never around
I might lose my solid ground
And it would go by
Like any other ordinary day
Why don’t you see me?
Could I be anymore obvious?
Well that’s just fine
If you decide to walk on by
Go ahead and pretend
That I was never alive
You can even look in my eyes
But you’ve never really seen
The me that lately I’ve been hiding
You look right through me
Like I’m a piece of glass
You claim to know me
But you don’t even know my name
Little things slowly add up
And the big things count a lot
If you saw this face a few years from now
Would you recognize me?
I’m tired of being just a pin up poster girl
In your boring world
Hung up in a frame
On a rainy day
I’m sick of being your little doll
That you threw out
To hit the wall
I’m through with this
I’m through with you
I just don’t want to be
Invisible
Chibu Ndibe – Second Place
Enemy Fire
He enters the battlefield
He’s done it before
A 1944 veteran of war
But with his enemy revealed
His fate seems sealed
The troops don’t yield
Like masters of illusion, delusion, intrusion
The bullets spray with a blinding fusion
Of light and sound
Click by click he empties each round
They fall back slowly their numbers downed
With the thrill of each kill and his growing determination
He relives the sensation of serving his nation
He wipes perspiration from his brow
Amazed by his feat
The enemy in retreat
The victor still alive in his seat
He scans one last time his eyes narrow and keen
Holding off pop-ups from his LCD screen
Olivia Hesslein – Third Place
Strumming her comfort
(Modeled by Carlos Williams “To a poor old woman”)
On an old, steel
Stringed guitar, resting,
Pick in hand,
It comforts her.
It comforts,
Her. It comforts
Her.
You see the way
Her eyes close, her
Head bobs. Music
Surrounding her.
Blissfully
Comforting.
A steel stringed guitar,
Pick in hand. Music,
Surrounding her.
It comforts her.