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Poetry Without Paper 2021

Poetry Without Paper winners 2021

High School Winners: 1st Place: Kyia Karvelas, “The Tea Kettle”    2nd Place: Mila Barry, “Like that of the Eye”   3rd Place: Logan Barry, “Little Bird”   Honorable Mention: Aurelia Harrison, “A Late Response to Jefferson”

Middle School Winners: 1st Place: Caliana Dort, “Where I am From”   2nd Place: Madison Jewell, “Parts of Trees”   3rd Place: Lyall Cunningham, “Verses”   Honorable Mentions: Hasan Albadri, “Spring is Like a Perhaps Hand”    Alyssa Deppen, “A Letter to 2021”

Elementary School Winners: 1st Place: Betsy Telep, “Sea View”   2nd Place: Alice Joshi, “Gloucester Gave to Me”   3rd Place: Gabriella McKearney, “Spring Sunshine”   Honorable Mentions: Quinn Goulart, “My Dog & I”   Timothy Halverson, “Midnight”

High School: 1st Place: Kyia Karvelas, “The Tea Kettle”

This feeling of anxiety and sadness that I can’t control
No one to turn to, to express my feelings
I feel like a tea kettle that after a while I might just blow
Steam overwhelming my life
My mind and heart slowly wash away not feeling how hot I am
I might just blow
Blow all my feelings out of me and force myself to not feel but still live
Forcing everyone out of my life and not letting anyone in
Like how a tea kettle blows all of the steam out and only keeps the water in
ssssssscccccccCCCCCCCRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMM
Two people that flipped my life and made me this way
The domino effect hits this family of mine
Soon way more people become like me, tea kettles
Everyone wants to help and take me off the burner
Thinking it will stop me from feeling this way
That won’t work
I’ll still steam up
I will still feel this way
You can’t touch me unless you want to burn yourself
You can’t help me
No one understands how I’ll blow after a while
I might just blow
I won’t blow now
I feel someone who I can let in
Someone who moves me they weren’t afraid of the burn
They lifted me up and let me become cool again
My scream slows down
I don’t feel as hot
sssscccCCRRRREEEAAAAMMMmmmm
I will no longer blow

High School: 2nd Place: Mila Barry, “Like that of the Eye”

close your Eyes.

from forth the earth, those great green vessels – tulip bulbs –
bear forth soft gauzy cloaks and powdered lips
their bodies curved – that gentle curve
of all organic things
which mimics the fall of the tree or
the sun
and which bends in spite of
or in compromise with

all the acting Forces – making the hard cut line,
or the wobbling sphere

like that of the Eye

in the skull
a mostly perfect ball made to refract
to reflect
the light that bends around all things
the light that is a particle
and a wave
and makes a form
in an almost perfect human orb
– which is wet and sort of slimy –
and rests in a hollowed out bone

like a powdery tulip’s head
with its thin brown veins
– called roots –
which see deep deep
to the bottom of the cavity –
a rock, probably granite,

lines the seam of the Socket –
and the bulb is moist and slippery and curves

and Sees up and out and in every direction.

High School: 3rd Place: Logan Frost, “Little Bird”

I fed you from my palm
Watching you grow as I did
A long time ago
But such is the way of life

My sweet little bird
The seed I fed you made all the difference

Your chirp was once so quite
You were young and afraid
Now your call carries along the wind
Like a proud Clarion

Your head now wears a crown
A crest of feathers befitting a king

My sweet little bird
The seed I fed you made all the difference

High School: Honorable Mention: Aurelia Harrison, “A Late Response to Jefferson”

Mr. Thomas Jefferson, if I may,

What you have put before us on this day,

This Declaration, written by your hand,

Mentions those who work our plantation land.

Your words on freedom are well-crafted

On these principles you have suddenly adapted.

You certainly have a lot to say.

And although your words are quite astute,

The craftsmanship I must salute

Written with a seeming fierce conviction,

But I sense here a glaring contradiction.

Something at present feels askew.

Should this truly be your view?

Who keeps you in that tailored suit?

Slaves, my good men, slaves are his key.

He keeps them in chains and refuses to free

His own children, who he is condemning

Born by a poor slave woman, Sally Hemmings.

He condemns them to a life of subjugation

And, if we observe the present situation,

His writings and actions do not agree;

“We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal.”

And yet, you continue to subjugate these people.

Your own flesh and blood are your property.

While they keep you rich, they toil in poverty.

What a fine father you are to her children, too.

I’m sure Ms. Hemmings is thanking you

From her slave’s shack in which you keep her.

You, Mr. Jefferson, know nothing of equality.

You cower like a dog behind your false ideology.

You leave out not only slaves, but women as well,

In essence, all of your household personnel

Women and slaves who run our false kingdom.

Are the people who built it not deserving freedom?

Middle School: 1st Place: Caliana Dort, “Where I am From”

I am from distractions and trauma, depression and hate;
I am from where dreams and lives were crushed to pieces with no hope in sight
I am from a group of nobodies with no aspiration;
I am from a place where nobody wants to be, a place for desperate nobodies
where even the lowest of the low look at this place and call it a ghetto;
Where the government pays you for disabilities and where no one works;
Where little kids’ toys are left out on the lawns;
Where people are living together in a duplex;
Where people leave their pride behind them and have to settle in this dump;
I am from parents who are separated who live separate lives;
I am from one who has anxiety to the roof but values every moment with his kids;
This man is my father and he is the glue that holds our love together;
I am from a one who chases love and never finds it for long one
who wants to be valuable to more than her children
one who has been broken multiple times,
but every time puts herself together and puts a mask on;
This is my mother she tries her hardest for her children;
I am from sisters that act like they love but they don’t show it;
A home where two sisters moved away from us,
A place where one of my sisters is using my vulnerability to throw me insults
about two people that have made a long impact on my life;
One sister that has her own problems that she hides with her own friends
as they are rude and as useless and as dumb as stones;
One sister that says she cares for me but throws my life out of her way,
asks me to do favors for her; but I have shut down to a point

Where I couldn’t care less because where I’m from defines me;
From a little kid I was brought up liking life;
But life brought me down, a slave to its nightmares;
I was and those nights had got the best of me and I’m broken;
Mentally shattered and physically unhealthy; my life has the better of me.
Torn between life and death is getting to my head.
Am I better alive or dead?

Middle School: 2nd Place: Madison Jewell, “Parts of Trees”

Picked up off the ground,
flowing through the breeze,
once attached now fallen,
smaller parts of trees.
lively loving leaves.
Fall wind blows,
crashing through windows.
You close the shutters and walk away,
flown through the window now it shall stay.
Dried and brown a shell of its former self;
green, yellow, red.
Full of fear, footsteps growing near,
left alone with not one shed tear.

Footsteps grow quiet,
stopping in their tracks,
picked up from its resting space,
rushed to a window where it is placed,
Watching the trees swaying with grace.

Middle School: 3rd Place: Lyall Cunningham, “Verses”

Poetry- so raw and pure
Hewn of the finest words
Fresh out of the fiery kiln
Of the mind
Laced with sorrow
And resentment and affection and delight
Each hastily stitched
With the needle of the pen
Each link in this imperfect chain
Tirelessly molded,
Formed, and sculpted
Out of and into random phrases
Which interlock and click and link together
into something more powerful
Than one word, one phrase,
One line, one stanza
Poetry- so raw and pure
Hewn of the finest words
Fresh out of the fiery kiln
Of the mind
Laced with compassion
And despair and meaning and remorse
Fresh out of the fiery kiln of the mind,

Quenched in ink

Middle School: Honorable Mention: Hasan Albadri, “Spring is Like a Perhaps Hand”

Spring is like a perhaps hand
(which comes carefully
out of Nowhere) arranging
a window, into which people look (while
people stare
arranging and changing placing
carefully there a strange
thing and a known thing here) and
changing everything carefully
spring is like a perhaps
Hand in a window
(carefully to
and fro moving New and
Old things, while
people stare carefully
moving a perhaps
fraction of flower here placing
an inch of air there) and
without breaking anything.

Middle School: Honorable Mention: Alyssa Deppen, “A Letter to 2021”

Dear 2021,
I’m writing to you- but not out of fun
Your sibling 2020 made a mess of us,
Threw us about like rags, made a huge fuss,
We are now a year older, a year stronger,
A year bolder
We wish ourselves well, cross our fingers,
We wear masks to try and prevent a spread,
A new virus, and many dead
Many alive and well, we hope and pray it stays that way,
Though we can’t be certain
Our hospitals are overflowing,
An antidote brewing,
And a hope for a better year
What did we do to deserve this?
One bad person gets karma so bad, we’re all inflicted
A tail chased lie- maybe a simulation?
Testing us to our limits?
New theories amiss,
None too believable,
But please, 2021, bring us a better year
We need renewed hope,
We float through space on a dying rock,
Thinking life is bad enough with our pandemic,
We want to live, not just survive
And to live we need a new light,
So please 2021, be better than your sibling,
Be our light shining through the dark,
Be our newest star,
Help us when we can’t help ourselves,
Just please, give us a new start

Yours truly, and I hope you listen, for we need you more than ever
~Alyssa Deppen

Elementary School: 1st Place: Betsy Telep, “Sea View”

Seals bask in the sun,
As I try to run,
Against the waves of Glory.
The wind ruffles the seagull’s Feathers
As they glide gracefully atop the infinite blue sky.
The roaring sea
shouts now even more gleefully
“Come in, Come in! The water’s fine. Of course, it’s mine!

For I am the roaring sea.”

I walk the sandy beaches,
As the rocks tumble.
I walk the sandy beaches,
As I throw off my first pair of breeches.
The seaweed will decide
It’s getting quite bored
With all the rope tangled and the crabs crawling
This way and that.
Yes, the seaweed will decide
That it is her turn to glide
Upon the ancient seas.
I climb onto the marshy marsh,
and fall into its tall grasses.
I climb onto the marshy marsh
Always happy and gay,
Because the ocean is my life,
And my life is the ocean,
And here I am. Right here! As I sit upon the bay.

Elementary School: 2nd Place: Alice Joshi, “Gloucester Gave to Me”

On a sunny day in summer
Gloucester gave to me
Twelve sunning seals
Eleven piping plovers
Ten fish a leaping
Nine waves a crashing
Eight muddy marshes
Seven sandy dollars
Six loons a diving
Five cormorants
Four snowy egrets
Three squirting clams
Too many gulls
One Great Blue Heron

Elementary School: 3rd Place: Gabriella McKearney, “Spring Sunshine”

Sunny weather forever.
Ponds full of rebirth.
Raking up all the dead leaves and sticks.
Island trips to Peaks.
Nimble creatures come out of hibernation.
Gabriella out and about enjoying this lovely season.
Sun breaks through the rain clouds.
Umbrellas close and parasols open.
Never missing one day unless the sky is gray.
Soon to open dozens of flowers with the rain’s help.
Hi, I say to the marvelous sun.
I look up to the yellow star.
Night says good-bye as sun says hello.
Every day I hope is as great as today.

Elementary School: Honorable Mention: Quinn Goulart, “My Dog & I”

My dog sleeps
My dog eats
And my dog plays and plays.
My dog sniffs
My dog drinks
And my dog licks my face.
My dog runs
My dog sits
And my dog chews a bone.
My dog is soft
My dog is sweet
With her I’m not alone.

Elementary School: Honorable Mention: Timothy Halverson, “Midnight”

Night strikes,
You’re alone in the pitch black woods.
Howls hit you.
Mosquitoes bite you.
Then someone screams.
You pretend you imagined it.
But walk a bit faster.

Poetry without Paper 2020

poetry without paper

2020 Contest Winners

Middle School

 

First Place, Middle School

Josephine West

O’Maley Innovation Middle School

“Hymns and Handstands”

Pencil rests behind his ear,

critical eye judges:

bones, sticks, clouds

littered across pages.

A purring motor drones from a cocoon of blankets,

Queen Clementine ruling her kingdom,

a stationary monarch.

Seagulls screech outside-

she flies, a blurry orange streak.

Cat thunders downstairs

to a graceful gymnast,

legs suspended in air, until-

crash!

She falls, a heap of limbs.

Joining joyful ruckus,

my fingers slide up and down frets,

plucking notes that drift

into the magic kitchen.

Sweet-smelling slightly charred carrots,

creamy feta, crunchy-smooth walnuts topped

with spring-smelling sprigs of dill

prompt a chorus of growls from our stomachs.

Chord sheets pepper the island,

strums and stirs synchronized,

handstand percussion

drumming out the beat.

Artist descends, stairs creaking.

We gather.

Chef hollers orders,

and we oblige

with minimal grumbling.

Prettily presented veggies blanket table.

We sit, our hands linked.

Meows accompany our grateful refrain,

and at last, we feast.

 

Second Place, Middle School

Lyall Cunningham

O’Maley Innovation Middle School

“Contemplate”

On the rock I sit

to think,

to contemplate

my actions

thus far into life.

My hair in the wind,

I am all but still.

The cool breeze in my face,

my thoughts swirl.

These drafts of thought

are more wild

than my hair

in the wind.

 

Third Place, Middle School

Talia Higgins

O’Maley Innovation Middle School

“The Weeping Willow”

The wind sings a sorrowful song
She stands weeping
Her hair sweeps across her face
She sways to the sound of wind

She hears a familiar melody
The color returns to her face
Her friends have arrived
They have been away for so long

A robin lands on her shoulder
Singing the tune of spring
Cheer up, it whistles
Cheer up

 

Honorable Mention

Natalie Sheedy

O’Maley Innovation Middle School

“Dream State”

Drifting to another world,

Hoping it’s permanent, knowing it’s not.

The night is yours to wish away.

The moon and stars looking down upon you.

Inner darkness finally melts away leaving true happiness.

Sometimes startling, dark, but everything happens for a reason as they say.

A distant memory the next day.

Sad when that time, state, turns into the best part of your day.

Dreaming, the most desperate wish for hope.

Night turns to day, once again we wait to feel fully free.

 

High School

 

First Place, High School

Willa Brosnihan

“Refilling”

Finger depress the tongue-latch of the door,
trigger her gag reflex and slide,
leaving open, hoping no other feels the draft and closes,
out, across the parking lot,
too quick a trip for a coat, arms crossed and nose up,
smelling ice, smoke from the kitchen,
the plain reverse of Main Street lit in orange.
The flashlight, click the button three times,
it must be convinced. Open
the cathedral mouth of the shipping container and shine in
the light, look for hiders, girl snatchers,
find none.
Enter like Pinocchio, unhumble, biblical,
into the whale. Tickle her insides for replacements,
for the things used up. It is supremely quiet.
It is cold. Run back across the parking lot now,
be re-swallowed like a lover after betrayal,
forgiven, and stack,
what you’ve gathered
where it’s easy to find. Watch Fransisco, Frankie,
sorting silverware. The clatter.
You are among people. Outside
you’d been like rhythm,
unfelt but shaking
the air which was the everything.

 

Second Place, High School

Autumn-Marie Silva

“Lucky Feet”

 

Third Place, High School

Calhoun Dyer

“Snowy Owl”

To loft freely above the highest bough

With wings of fluffy down

Softening any sounds

Unknown, unfound

A greater freedom than man can know

Borne aloft on feathers of snow

 

Honorable Mention

Mila Barry

 

Honorable Mention

Katrina Machetta

“Home”

The sound of the unfamiliar language.

The smell of pasta and fish in the market.

The sight of old photographs with people

we never talk about anymore.

The place I call home

but

Never put as my permanent address.

The brokenness we never talk about is why I keep coming.

The yesterday that no one remembers

formed the today that people always talk about.

I love every flaw because that is when I realized what beautiful really means.

I want to show you my gratitude but money can’t buy a thank you or I love you.

We could talk today,

but I don’t want to get stuck on our yesterday.

Just open your arms-

because tomorrow I will be home.

 

Honorable Mention

Sarah Nealon

Artwork by Calla Rose Zerilli, Grade 3

Poetry Without Paper Award Winning Poems 2018

Poetry Without Paper 2018

 

     These brief essays over the past several years of Poetry Without Paper have focused largely on the various ways in which poetry can be defined. Some definitions, like the one you might find in the latest on-line dictionary, attempt to be objective and literal, but most, especially those by poets themselves, have been quirky and fanciful, as if to capture the essence of poetry simply by illustrating it. When the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas said,

     Poetry is what in a poem makes you laugh, cry, prickle, makes your toenails twinkle, makes you want to do this or that or nothing, makes you know that you are alone and not alone in the unknown world, that your bliss and suffering is forever shared and forever all your own,

                            he was doing just that, in a fiercely authentic, passionate way.

     This year, for the first time in my memory, we have a prize-winning poem that attempts to define poetry in poetry.  As you hear Seth Grover read his poem “Word Entanglement,” or later, at your leisure, read it over again, or even a third time, try to discover how much of the distinctive nature of poetry has been caught and preserved in this work of a talented eighth grader.

     We hope you will enjoy our ceremony this evening, as well as the chance to savor these efforts by an impressive group of student poets.

 

                                                                                                              Richard Sloane

                                                                                                              PWP Judge

 

              SAWYER FREE LIBRARY ONLINE POETRY CONTEST, 2018

 

WINNERS:

 

Elementary School

 

First Place   Josie West   West Parish School  Grade 5  “They Called Her Moses”

Second Place    Hannah Olson   Beeman Elementary School  Grade 5 “Blossom”

Third Place     Alexis Thomas   East Gloucester School  Grade 5 “The Big Trip”

Honorable Mention   Gabriella McKearney   Plum Cove Elementary School   Grade 1 

               “The Good Place”

Honorable Mention   Beatrix Brosnihan   West Parish School   Grade 5   “Story”

Honorable Mention    Evelyn Porter   East Gloucester School   Grade 5   “Boat on the Ocean”

 

Middle School

 

First Place   Elijah Sarrouf   O’Maley Innovation Middle School   Grade 7  “Back Then”

Second Place   Chandra Lavery   O’Maley Innovation Middle School   Grade 7  “Evanescence”

Third Place   Seth Grover   O’Maley Innovation Middle School  Grade 8  “Word Entanglement”

Honorable Mention   Clara Del Vecchio   O’Maley Innovation Middle School   Grade 7

            “The Scent of Jasmine”

Honorable Mention Sean Bergin  O’Maley Innovation Middle School  Grade 7   “Freedom”

Honorable Mention  Gabriella Amaral   O’Maley Innovation Middle School   Grade 8

            “Little Star”

Honorable Mention   Willow Barry  O’Maley Innovation Middle School   Grade 6

           “Painted World”

 

High School

 

First Place   Willa Brosnihan   Gloucester High School   Grade 9   “Café Lameiros

Second Place    Erik Waxdal   Waring School   Grade 12   “Graveyard Shift” 

Third Place   Katherine Bevins   Gloucester High School   Grade 10

           “Photosynthesis of a Relationship”

Honorable Mention   Mila Barry   Gloucester High School   Grade 9  “Another Birthday”

Honorable Mention   Sophia Palumbo   Waring School   Grade 11   “Recess”

Honorable Mention   Joscelyn Shulman   Rockport High School   Grade 12 

         “Visions of Gideon”

 

Elementary School

 

First Place

Josie West

West Parish Elementary School

Grade 5


They Called her Moses

(Harriet Tubman: 1820-1913)

Small girl, age seven
Rough linen shirt over black body
Deep sober eyes, scared.
Clip clop, clip clop. Being sold.

For twenty-three years 
Scars crisscross her back 
She watches sisters, brothers sold off,
Fearful it will be her next.

Following the night,
Slips of paper guide her 
To strangers’ houses.
Stop by stop
She finds her way to freedom.

Free…but can’t rest;
She dreams dreams, receives 
Visions — answers to prayers, 
Answers showing her 
The way to protecting her people.

Silently 
She slinks through the underbrush 
Silently 
She glides along the ground
Knock, knock. Secret password: A friend of friends
Inside: Food. Hope. Light.

 

Ten years
Nineteen trips 
Three hundred slaves
Not one passenger lost!

 

Second Place

 

Hannah Olson

Beeman Elementary School

Grade 5

 

Blossom 

Blushing with color 
Lush flowers fill the fragrant meadow 
Opening to feel the sun’s sweet rays 
Showing the world their beautiful colors,
Stars on the earth: 
Orchids, Dandelions, and Buttercups 
Many bees come to visit, humming gentle tunes

 

Third Place

 

Alexis Thomas

East Gloucester Elementary School

Grade 5

 

The Big Trip

I’m on a trip; here’s what I would take…
Amazing antelopes writing down their troubles
Bunches of baboons all blowing bubbles 
Christmas trees and lightbulbs (extras couldn’t hurt)
Dogs in different color skirts
Elephants eating my brand new shirts
Fudgsicles, that taste like no other,
Grape juice for my baby brother
Helicopter propellers (real ones, nonetheless)
I could bring my makeup to look the best.
Just a few more things that I’ll bring:
Kangaroos playing with a piece of string
Little ballerinas, in perfect rows,
Minnows with pink polka-dotted bows
New pair of pants that are blue
Octopi with charm bracelets too!
Penguins with suits all waddle to and fro
Queen bees in fake trees with a ball to throw
Rusted old screws with a sharp winding edge
Screens from windows that dropped into a hedge
Twisted Twizzlers for snacking on
Umbrellas when dreary weather goes on
Very old men that are all named Don
Wind pants for when it gets cold
Xylophones to make my entrance bold
Yodelers with bagpipes in hand
Zeke came with the marching band!
And within in all of that hustle and bustle, all of that is just in my
duffle!

 

Honorable Mention

 

Gabriella McKearney

Plum Cove Elementary School

Grade 1

 

The Good Place

 

There is a place I know along the beach beside a tree.
I know a spot too.
I know a quiet place here.  
I know a loud place there.
I know a perfect place at home.
There is a good place at a rock.
I know a place greater than the beach.
I know a happy place too.
I know the rest of the places.
I love you places!

 

Honorable Mention

 

Beatrix Brosnihan

West Parish Elementary School

Grade 5

 

Story

Pick up a pencil
And travel far away
To a place where people are welcome.

Choose your own story
Choose your own fate
To a place where paper and pencil meet.

 

Honorable Mention

 

Evelyn Porter

East Gloucester Elementary School

Grade 5

 

Boat on the Ocean

I shall float,
For I am a boat.
All of the fish,
when I come wish,
I come for pleasure.
Not for riches of treasure.
For that is what my sailors get,
when they sell all of the caught fish yet.
With the gulls, my sailors thrive,
As we fish the foaming brine.
The captain shouts his orders,
Straight from his quarters. 
The waves are really thrashing,
Leaving me to go crashing.
In the sea with no one to know but me.

 

Middle School

 

First Place

 

Elijah Sarrouf

O’Maley Innovation Middle School

Grade 7

 

Back Then

Back then, when the flowers bloomed
So bright and beautiful,
When the bees would chant
In buzzing tones and collect and pollinate,
We were so scared the bees would sting.
But that was all back then.

Back then we basked in summer sun
And hid between the rocks
Built in the mud castles of miniature, 
Then cool off in the blanket of turquoise. 
We would go on a walk and or run and climb away.
But that was all back then.

Back then, the leaves would jump off the trees
And fall to the ground in vibrant reds and yellows. 
The wind would carry them, all the while assuring you,
“Let us take you with us.”
Can you hear them, do you listen?
But that was all back then. 

Back then, the winter snow would glow
So bright, so beautiful. 
You put on the mittens, the hats, the boots, 
And jump right in the veil of white.
We would skate across the frozen ice.
But that was all back then.  

I remember those days,
Back then, back then.
I remember the flowers blooming
And the summer sun
And the wind come to take us away.
I remember the snow, 
But I have a question: Do you remember,
Do you recall, what we did back then? 

 

Second Place

Chandra Lavery

O’Maley Innovation Middle School

Grade 7

 

Evanescence

I walk the small path I have found,
Wondering,
Has my stay been too long?
The ground under my feet tells me that I am unwelcome.

My hands are tied tightly,
The skin of my wrists raw.
They ache for satisfaction,
The feeling of bliss.

Barely in reach,
There is a library of open-ended questions,
With answers I cannot understand.

Words rot in my mouth.
They beg to be spoken.
Talons claw at my cheeks.

Blood drips
Boils,
The poison of me.

The path has vanished;
My visit has come to an end.

My skeleton has crumbled to dust,
The remains blowing away in the breeze.

Invisible monsters laugh and take,
Taking what little I have.

But nothing
Was ever truly mine.

 

Third Place

 

Seth Grover

O’Maley Innovation Middle School

Grade 8

 

Word Entanglement

Poetry is like the songs of writing:
Specific types for different themes,
Words too intricate for books
Entwined together in perfectly bonded stanzas.
Certain sounds
Made for each other,
Coinciding to simply sound nice
If used correctly.
You can say a million things
In just one sentence.
Using words to convey meaning —
That is the meaning of poetry.
To sound nice
Or look smart,
But to convey meaning.
Entangling different words together
In a consecutive order,
In an innumerable amount of words,
To say something
You could have said in five.

That is poetry.

 

Honorable Mention

 

Clara Del Vecchio

O’Maley Innovation Middle School

Grade 7

 

The Scent of Jasmine

I remember the scent of jasmine wafting through my window,
Exaggerated by the hot summer air.
There is nowhere I’d rather be.
That was a paradise, I am aware.

The setting sun, the warm summer nights —
I miss them; that much is true.
The scent of jasmine reached my nostrils
As I stared out at the ocean blue.

The days spent in the sun are gone.
Now there are days filled with cold.
Once upon a time I laughed
While smelling jasmine, the scent so bold.

I suppose that the cold isn’t so bad,
Even though it does bring a sense of sadness,
A sense of missing the scent of jasmine,
But there is a soft side to the blackness.

It’s futile to miss the days I enjoyed,
Because now my mind is barren.
I wish I was still in the sun,
Still smelling the scent of jasmine.

 

Honorable Mention

 

Sean Bergin

O’Maley Innovation Middle School

Grade 7

 

Freedom

Freedom is an amazing thing,
But fictional at best.
We all are locked away,
Trapped within our phones
Our schools
Our jobs
Our life.
We say those behind bars
Are the only ones not free.
Some say death is the way
And tie the knot of the gallows,
For they are the ones who know,
Freedom is a lock within our dreams
One without a key.

 

Honorable Mention

 

Gabriella Amaral

O’Maley Innovation Middle School

Grade 8

 

Little Star

Surrounded in a galaxy of darkness,
Only hope being the sun;
Shattered pieces arraying the night sky 
Having a subtle shine.

Being noticeably unnoticed, 
Trying to stand out,
Watching the moon smile down to others,
Witnessing everything around you,
Imagining yourself being better.

Lonelier than a deserted island,
Looking for some company,
Feeling lost in the gigantic solar system, 
Never to be seen in daylight,
Not knowing what happens to the star when the morning sunlight
                         arises.

 

Honorable Mention

 

Willow Barry

O’Maley Innovation Middle School

Grade 6

 

Painted World

In a painted world
the oceans could be made of silk,
and trees could be made of chocolate.

In a painted world
rainbows could be made of flowers,
and clouds could be made of feathers.

In a painted world
fish could be made of sunbeams
and drift about in a lake full of dreams.

In a painted world
emerald grass covered in diamond dewdrops
could quiver in the light of a topaz sun.

In a painted world
stained-glass crabs could scurry over
crystal coral and cardboard flounders.

In a painted world
a night sky full of stars could be 
flakes of snow resting on a black ice lake.

In a painted world
there could be strawberries made of rubies
and peas made of peridots.

In a painted world
rocks could be hard candy,
and balloons could be made of cherries.

In a painted world
paper peonies could quiver
in rain drops made of sapphire.
If the world were painted,
I suppose the pencil I’m using to write this with
could be made of buttercups,
and the of wood of the table could be honey.

All these things are possible for a painted world, 
but one can never be sure, 
for a painted world is different to all people who view it.
But I will imagine a painted world in the ways you see above, 
for I think the world would be better like that.

 

High School

 

First Place

 

Willa Brosnihan

Gloucester High School

Grade 9

 

Café Lameiros

The four sit at the table,
outside the cafe,
the women perched on the knees of their men,
underwear showing neon through tight pants,
hair loose and dark against their skin.
There is a symmetry to it,
the way the shoulders slump down to the table,
work-worn hands,
brown with sun,
resting
on the lower backs of their women. 
There is such splendor
in the four
at the table,
with their laughter,
the goodness of touch unabashed.
They are the truth
as they sit in the shade,
the hills around them green and dotted with ruins,
the grey-brown skeleton cork trees,
the living drinking coffee and the dead stacked in their graves,
a child giving fresh dirt,
to the worms of her mother.
And here are these women,
perched on the knees of their men, beautiful,
belonging to the countryside,
belonging to the dead and to their children,
and the four at the table —
they look like modern art painted by someone
who changed everything.

 

Second Place

 

Erik Waxdal

Waring School

Grade 12

 

Graveyard Shift

 

I spade kitchen grease from thin pans, thick glass, 
brittle neon and facsimile chrome,
and the young couple, sanctified in Chardonnay embrace,
wipe hot tears from each other’s cheekbones. 

Projected on the Whiteness ahead, 
too far to grasp,
too near to flee,
a wizened Woody Harrelson
loves his wife a final hour
loads the gun in the parlor
and paints his tulips
a darker shade. 

With each gust of August air,
each gasp from my midnight Audience, 
the tattered curtains writhe, dance,
twitch from the banister
and let the lavender harborlight
lie silent
at my feet.

 

Third Place

 

Katherine Bevins

Gloucester High School

Grade 10

 

Photosynthesis of a Relationship


When she met him
something was different.
He was not like any of the others;
He was pure and gentle.
They were young,
But for some reason
She fell for him, 
She fell for the way he admired her 
and not her body.  
He made her laugh.
He was cute,
not like “omg he is so hot”
but for the “I can’t stop thinking about him” way.
They talked
and he held her hand
and something for once seemed right.
There was something about his innocence 
That made her feel safe,
But it didn’t take long for him to change his mind.
She opened up
Only for him to judge her
and leave her
and now years later 
he thought to himself:
“Now I’m the one who would beg for a chance
but she is a flower
and I am only the clouds
that deprive her of the sun.”

 

Honorable Mention

 

Mila Barry

Gloucester High School

Grade 9

 

Another Birthday

 

Chipped windows, smudged sashes flung wide open 
invite inside summer premature, late June sun beat down to
end spring, hasten hot dog days of months to come,
and later on the women to be born of prickly asphalt, barefoot
wood chips borne away to tall walls of responsibility, jails of time
and consciousness, one way
ticket to the reality
of adulthood.

That afternoon fourteen was young enough
to just forget, slide curvy rose hips, bursting buds out 
flaky paint panes, 
black roofing burning beneath feet bare once again, we sat
precautious, hyperaware of twice-told tales of hard placed footsteps
shattering brittle building bone, 
leaning far back on our tailbones, testing fate to see if we might
slip too far, 
fall fast to hit the deck below.  

Grassy lawn harbored low beach chairs, grown ladies chatting
back and forth, a strange, almost 
Goodbye.  The littlest one babbling unaware, and us
the in-between, not yet
Goodbye.  From our vantage point above cool breeze blowing the clouds
of someday ever closer, 
closer, but 
not ready to receive us quite yet.  

Which was just fine by me.

 

Honorable Mention

 

Sophia Palumbo

Waring School

Grade 11

 

Recess

 

I used to be the best at cops and robbers.
I would climb the pine tree in the backwoods,
The tall one with the sap that glues your hands and your shorts
                            together,
The tree I would have to jump up to reach the branch to climb.
I would sit there until I heard the noise of footsteps on rocks.

As the sound neared, I jumped,
Scraping my hands, making them bleed,
Running through the briars
Scratching my legs.
I would turn just enough to see my friend’s face
Red and smiling,
Her arms and legs as scraped as mine. 

We’d run to the school
Giggling as we bandaged our battle wounds.

 

Honorable Mention

 

Joscelyn Shulman

Rockport High School

Grade 12

Visions of Gideon

Visions of orange lights 
and standing while my feet went numb. 
The beauty
and serenity of the moment
dulled the numbness
and brought about a feeling that flooded my lungs and filled my veins.

Looking among sculptures falling from the sky 
As my field of vision was overtaken by light, 
I stood, 
I watched,
I felt parts of myself that had vanished years ago 
fall onto my face, 
melt, 
and once again 
mend within me.