AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL POETS

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Live Poets Society of NJ
P O Box 8841
Turnersville, NJ 08012

info@highschoolpoetrycontest.com

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Winter 09/10

 

 

FIRST PLACE WINNER

WINTER 09 

$500 SCHOLARSHIP PRIZE

Between Tours
 
There are strong red apples hanging
with solidity, weighing down the sad, crimson leaves of fall.
 
She sits beneath the seasoned grenades, ponders romance:
buying lipstick to camouflage liquid red evidence
 
and rouge to disguise the apples of her cheeks,
hidden under a geography of branched blood vessels.
 
Such a relief to be still after long nights of twitching
under blistering comforters, which didn’t bring much comfort
 
after all. Ice pack awaiting a crooked nose, swollen red
with a purple heart at its epicenter; his “I love you”.
 
He saunters back to where she is under the tree,
the look of a soldier caught in his eye.
 
She longs to be a bird, a winged angel. She would spring from her own Medusa,
the perfect emissary between Earth and Olympus.
 
Between worlds, perhaps she would stumble upon Persephone,
the goddess she does not want to be anymore:
 
beautiful but ephemeral, forever stuck with a pomegranate
cupped in her fleshy  palm, binding her to a world without light.
 
Somewhere far away, a red-bellied robin perches on a windowsill,
looking for something worth having.
Randie Adler, NJ, Tenafly High School

SECOND PLACE WINNER
($300 SCHOLARSHIP PRIZE)
Progress
I am listening to the buildings talk
those spiraling metal whoops of joy
"oh children" they say "in the future
dreams will soar above our heads and
one wave of a gentle hand
will freeze the wind in its
eternal loop of rebellion and love."
But they do not speak of the broken
the arms and legs and voices
of workers who collapse under the weight of the present
how wide shoulders bend under its heaviness
and how, like an open mouth,
the night sucks everything empty
in the deepest of all kisses.
Susannah Sharpless, IN, Park Tudor School
THIRD PLACE WINNER
($150 SCHOLARSHIP PRIZE)

Fuchsia is like the swan
 
Fuchsia is like the swan’s neck as it arcs,
            pauses,
and strikes thrashing fins bulges fat with golden scales
            as it swallows
 
            In the summer
mud blisters and cracks
                        under the tire swing
 
Cattails stand—
            bayonets planted defiantly
                        under the willow
in the shallows of the pond
 
Muddy water reflects
                                                cumulus
            white and gliding
                        like the hunting swan
 
“There”
Dad points to a rising turtle shell
and we silently toss breadcrumbs
to the snapper
Katie Marenghi, MI, Ann Arbor Huron HS
EDITOR’S CHOICE SELECTION
(BRAGGIN’ RITES)

I Saw God
I saw God,
sitting in the grass,
face upturned towards the sun.
And his limbs like green leaves, outstretched.
His thin body, like a stem, waving from side to side.
A soft and slow dance to the skies.
A single petal fell, floated to the ground.
Hallelujah.
Flower deity.
Amen.
Roshelle Patterson, TX, Harker Heights High School
ALL OTHER CERTIFIED NATIONAL WINNERS
The Entertainer - Claire Summers, OH, Crestwood High School
"left as fertilizer to a hungry ground" - Cassandra Hottenstein, FL, Vanguard High School
Scripted - Anja Young, TX, The British School of Houston
The Universal Secret - Wendy Mao, MD, Montgomery Blair High School
Dear Christine - Catherine Havemann, CA, Ukiah High School
Storm in Iraq - Jay Snider, TX, Cypress Falls High School
Private Season - Kaneisha L. Payton, SC, Spring Valley High School
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - Kevin Yang, MN, Champlin Park High School
Severed Mask - Elyse Frenchman, MA, Lexington High School
Note on an Exile - Cole Saxon, MS, Lamar Christian High School
Epitaph - David Alexander Beame, WA, University Preparatory Academy
Myths - Rita Feinstein, NM, Home School/Santa Fe Community College
Rinse - Namrata Gumaste, NJ, Cresskill High School
These Turns We Take - Ben Serna-Grey, WA, Vancouver Home Connection
i never had a map - chelsea mcdonald, ms, brandon high school
Everlasting - Jacob Cole - CA, Torrey Pines High School
Yearbook - Andrew David King, CA, Moreau Catholoc High school
Floating - Shennon Lu, MD, Richard Montgomery High School
Change - Mary Depperschmidt, MD, St. Mary's Ryken High School
Just Another Error - Monica Grabijas, IL, Maine South High School
Nothing is Noiseless - Sean McGuire, MT, Great Falls Central Catholic High School
Remember - Iris Chiu, NJ, Livingston High School
Untitled - Katie Michaels, MT, Big Sky HS
Bearers of Burden - Brady Detwiler, MA, Wilmington High School
Stealing the Sun - Anna Kolar, PA, Hickory High School
Nyx - Caroline Hoenemeyer, NV, The Meadows School
Bequest - Natalie Van Sant, MD, Carver Center for Arts and Technology
The timepiece - Christian Sammartino, PA, Collegium Charter School

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Live Poets Society of NJ
P O Box 8841
Turnersville, NJ 08012

info@highschoolpoetrycontest.com

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