Tuesday April 26, 2016 7Pm Memorial Hall Library
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Tuesday April 26, 2016 7pm Memorial Hall Library Sponsored by the Friends of Memorial Hall Library 2 Memorial Hall Library’s 12th Annual Teen Poetry Contest Award Winning Poems Judged by Gayle C. Heney, North Andover’s former 2-term Poet Laureate. She is the producer and host of the TV series Write Now. Ms. Heney was editor of the poetry anthology Songs from the Castle’s Remains. Her poems have appeared in the book Moments Falling Open, numerous publications and chapbooks. She originated and judged North Andover High School’s Robert Frost Poetry Awards. Heney has taught poetry at the Peabody Essex Museum, libraries, senior centers, schools, Essex Art Center, Rolling Ridge Conference Center, Salem Arts Festivals, retirement communities and MA Poetry’s Student Day of Poetry. Middle School Top Honors First Place: “Peas” by Lauren Jeffery, Doherty Middle School………………………......…page 5 Second Place: “Puppet” by Ariel Kim, West Middle School…………………………….….page 6 Third Place: “Ode to Paper” by Sophie Jeffery, Doherty Middle School………………...…page 7 Teen Choice Award: “A Desk in a Corner Somewhere” by Aleah Davidson………………page 8 Teen Choice Award: “The Resolute Church” by Edison Chae………………………...…..page 10 Middle School Honorable Mentions “The Beauty of Haiku” by Saadwi Balaji, Wood Hill Middle School……………………..page 11 “Future” by Addison Baldwin, Doherty Middle School…………………………………...page 12 “Just Breathe” by Addison Baldwin, Doherty Middle School…………………………..…page 12 “The Journey” by Sara Beth Boese, Doherty Middle School...……………………………page 13 “The Memory Tree” by Eugen Botnaru, Doherty Middle School…………………………page 14 “Ode to Chocolate Chip Cookies” by Sam Brosnan……………………………………….page 15 “Ode to Sleep” by Katherine Fillion, Doherty Middle School…………………………….page 16 3 “Never Saw Santa” by Cassia Gonsalves, homeschool……………………………………page 17 “Broken” by Yashvi Gosalia, West Middle School……………………………….……….page 18 “A Lie” By Yashvi Gosalia, West Middle School…………………………………………page 19 “The Closed Door” by Kirk Hillson, West Middle School……………………...…………page 20 “Autumn” by Emma Keany, Doherty Middle School……………………………………...page 21 “7 ways of looking at social media” by Johanna Kerrigan, Doherty Middle School….…...page 22 “My Queen, My Enemy” by Hannah Kim, West Middle School……………………….…page 23 “In Memory Of” by Christina Li, Doherty Middle School………………………………...page 24 “Under the Willows” by Serena Li, West Middle School………………………………….page 26 “I Am” by Solace Lockheardt, Wood Hill Middle School…………………………………page 26 “Leaning” by Anna Riley, Doherty Middle School………………………………………..page 27 “Remembrance” by Haywood Schwartz, Doherty Middle School………………………...page 28 “A Work in Progress” by Samar Seth, Doherty Middle School……………………...……page 30 “Silence Silenced” by Katherine Song, Doherty Middle School…………………………..page 31 “The Bridge Across” by Emerald Tan, Doherty Middle School……………………...……page 31 “Kimball’s Farm Disaster” by Eryn Trant, Wood Hill Middle School…………………….page 32 “Alone in the Fog” by Ciaran Walsh, Doherty Middle School…………………………….page 33 “I Am” by Yuping Zhu, Andover School of Montessori…………………………………..page 34 High School Top Honors First Place: Don’t You Ever Want Kids? By Skylar Rungren, Andover High School…….page 34 Second Place: College Students’ Lullaby by Charlotte Guterman, Andover High School..page 36 Third Place: THERE IS A CYCLE AND WE NAME IT WHAT WE WANT by Julia Beckwith, Philips Academy…………………………………………………………………………..page 36 4 High School Teen Choice: “How to Deal with Unrequited Feelings” by Natalie Good, Cambridge School of Weston………………………………………………………………page 38 High School Teen Choice: “Orange Peel Smiles” by Hayden Rungren, Andover High School………………………………………………………………………………………page 40 High School Honorable Mentions “The Abandoned Earth” by Tony Aracena………………………..……………………….page 41 “Where Silence Speaks Louder Than Words” by Sara Cannella, Greater Lawrence Technical School………………………………………………………………………………………page 41 “I Open My Arms” by Natalie Good, Cambridge School of Weston……….……………..page 42 “Ode to Ice Cream” by Natalie Good, Cambridge School of Weston……………………..page 43 “Tradition” by Charlotte Guterman, Andover High School………………………….…….page 44 “Untitled” by Charlotte Guterman, Andover High School…………………………...……page 45 “A New Beginning” by Megan Hartnett, Andover High School…………………………..page 45 “Time (High School)” by Jaleesa Molina, Greater Lawrence Technical School……….….page 46 “Ware wa Ningen Janai” by CJ Morse, Andover High School…………………………….page 47 “Picture Perfect” by Tomas Morse, Andover High School……………………………...…page 48 “Another Kind of Claustrophobia” by Hayden Rungren, Andover High School………….page 48 “You and I” by Taylor Stevens, Andover High School……………………………………page 49 “Immature Me” by Sheila Tejada, Greater Lawrence Technical School……..……………page 50 “Society” by Sheila Tejada, Greater Lawrence Technical School…………………………page 51 5 Middle School Top Honors Middle School First Place: “Peas” by Lauren Jeffery Mother likes to pretend that everything is okay. Even though Me and Leroy can hear her stomach rumbling most nights and hear how often the dust blows through like a train. We pick peas, Leroy and me and Mother. Sometimes Violet joins But mostly she takes care of the baby. Sometimes Leroy sneaks a pea while we’re picking. When Mother catches him, she scolds him. She says we’ll get in trouble and she makes him spit it out because she says why should he have something nice when he’s been bad? When she doesn’t catch him, he looks so happy that I can’t help but want to sneak a pea, too. We don’t have a lot to eat. Mostly Mother steals peas When the fields are empty and sometimes Leroy and Violet and I kill birds. They shriek at us asking why. I remind them that they have to kill worms to feed their young. And I ask them why? And they don’t respond. Mostly because they’re usually dead 6 by then. A lot of the time, we get dusty. We get so dusty that we look like clods of soil. We look like we might start sprouting grass and peas of our own. We don’t always get to wash but when we do, the water runs brown. Always. Middle School Second Place: “Puppet” by Ariel Kim A spotlight glares me in the face As the backdrop drops along with my stomach The puppet show has begun With a tug of their unseen hands I see myself spin Leaping in the air And outsider to my own body I am a puppet Subjected to bend to their will Whenever, whatever they want A smile Painted across my face Words choked from my mouth I cannot escape from this horror I am jerked in all directions Upwards, right or left, Down on my knees 7 Doing the things I don’t want to do The people who made me Stitched me together Piece by piece are living out their lives through me for the sake of putting on a show. I am a puppet strangled by unbreakable strings Stronger than iron chains They don’t clang against the ground But they drag me down the same From the audience, They are hard to see For how else will they believe That I am moving with a will of my own? Will they ever know that behind this painted façade there is a girl crying inside? I am a puppet Sometimes I find myself Dreaming about the day That I might break free And move on my own two feet. Middle School Third Place: “Ode to Paper” by Sophie Jeffery Paper Pure white, black, and every color in between A blank space, full of ideas, Just waiting to be exposed Paper A textural liar Everyone thinks you’re smooth, but 8 You are many fibers, bunched together in a sheet Paper Perfect, but, not for long Your beauty is fated to be marked up By words, or color Paper A stationary’s gymnast You can be folded in any way, for fun (origami), or for math (fractions) Paper You are tough You can stand the punch of a staple, or The constant pinch of a clip Paper A product of nature When I wave you, I hear you whisper, like a forest wind Drifting through the trees Middle School Teen Choice: “A Desk in a Corner Somewhere” by Aleah Davidson Can a word make a difference? Can a paragraph open a mind? Can a story change a life? J.K Rowling made you believe in magic, John Green had you sobbing for weeks, Suzanne Collins taught the power of sacrificing yourself as tribute these wonderful worlds are ours At a desk in a corner somewhere, sits a woman who lives through a pen. 9 And experience flows through her veins that beats her heart and pumps her blood. Though lonely and dark as a corner ever was, though deep wrinkles shadow as silver hair shimmers her words bring the brightest color, the liveliest youth you may hope to uncover She cries ink onto paper so they know of her sorrow, She laughs letters of joy so they know of her triumph, and she bleeds stories that can change, a perspective, a person, a world. Stories that give hope to a struggling family. Stories that bring light into a darkening household. Stories that inspire and spark emotion, that make eyes light up, ablaze How we feel words in bright bursting hues. An entire planet, colors, emotions, life. The screaming red of a tulip, the sleeping green of a sprout, is captured and stored in ink darker than the blackest raven. And how the dancing of the stars, the enchantment of a forest, the colors of life, emotion, is bottled up within the stanzas of a poem. And how the cry of the world, the ecstasy of the children, and the triumph of one person, can be felt by people all over the earth, from the pages of a book, 10 from the stanzas of a poem, from the ink, from a pen, from that desk, in a corner somewhere.