by Stephanie C., Main Library On Saturday, August 13th, a gathering was held at The Main Library to celebrate the winners of The City Library's 2nd annual Teen Poetry Contest. The contest invites students entering grades 9-12 to submit a poem of 500 words or less. This year's theme was "Oceans of Possibilities." Three awards were given in each category (9th/10th Grade and 11th/12th Grade), 1st, 2nd, and Honorable Mention. 1st Place winners received a $100 prize, and 2nd Place winners received a $50 prize. Five of this year's winners were able to attend on Saturday to read their poems. The 2022 9th & 10th Grade winners are: The 11th & 12th Grade winners are: You can read all of the award-winning poems in The City Library's digital collection on BiblioBoard, and we've also included them here below. Congratulations to all of the winners and participants of the 2022 Teen Poetry Contest! 1st PlaceDive Through Crystal by Erika Prasthofer (10th Grade) Dive through crystal, pyramid-spike ripples of tourmaline blue and teal refractions. Swallow glassy gurgles, splintering the throat; let apexes and edges clank, pinch to shard, crackle, peel fleshy drapes from their adhesion to grenadine. Shingling downward, each pastel, cloudy-tart ceramic, stretchy remnant piles up, clingy textiles in the windpipe. A gasp in salty water gushes assortments of polygon webs of flesh outwards, provoking whirlpool current flows, tweedling the webs as though within a vacant, pale dreidel that rectifies to threads, frail twines that sink, settle: coral’s dust, misty flush. Drown breath in beauty, bitter ultimatum. Respiration perished in rhinestone particle, absence of suspension and subtle drift, a pulse meant to sift across this vast microcosm of bubbles, blubber, and barnacle. Is there hope that printed ink on modern parchment is natural, sharp, intricate enough to inhale, inject, sting, and swallow through even the buzzing, dingy conscience? ...where sensation tends to suffocate, leaking to cement across rectangular shield glass, flat, sleek, black until flashing skips of imagery-- a different kind of blue projection than the ocean or the diver’s sapphire studs-- a blue bound to shed the throat, the voice of sentimentality and instinctual conviction, the entrance of energy and fuel to heed, to a state of elasticity, indifference: to numbness. Mahogany and glossy-amber locks, golden-rouge, chalky-metallic luster are chopped like seaweed root from snail, conch, and oyster prick-- from basalt and serpentine, from surface-churning havoc of the sailor’s rudder. They tickle her ghostly, whitened cheek and arise, hanging midway in slanted wavers, ruffling across water’s turquoise, a gradient that’s sun rim skims azure with split ends and abrasions where dandruff falls like ashes. When do we suffer, halt the envy, expectation towards numbness and illusory emotion and color? Maybe I will dive through crystal, pyramid-spike ripples of tourmaline blue and teal refractions: through nothing but a sheet of paper, memory, and a dose of hyperphantasia to sew, stitch, string beauty, mahogany locks, with the needle of the dolphin through the surface gems, and it is then that one may take a gasp, breathe heavily again. 2nd PlaceLove Song by Samwise Risley (10th Grade) Sing me a song of want my siren Sing me a song of needs Sing me a song of all I love Then pull me beneath your seas Tell me of all that which I hold dear Show me the things I love Sing me your song from deep below And I’ll listen from above Help me to soften a hardened heart And show me what I desire Then pull me down to deepest seas To join your siren choir I’ve been out at sea for far too long I long for something new Tell me the things I should do next My fate is up to you Sing me possibilities Of all that I could do Let me learn from your age-old song And I’ll gladly leave with you Devour me under the crashing waves Drag me to the depths that you haunt For I’d rather regret that which I never did Than to never have known what I want Honorable MentionMy Once Endless Ocean of Possibilities by Lucy McKillen (9th Grade) The possibilities Everything is open and on the tip of my finger - beckoning me forward like the open ocean My choices, my decisions - like the moment before I plunge into the cold salty water The things then forced unto me The pressure - the weight of all of the water on top of me as I'm being pulled down, down, down Being perfect The ocean of possibilities, My ocean of possibilities now their ocean of possibilities New possibilities - the darkness and limit of my previous choices Not possibilities, challenges Not challenges, a duty The vast endless ocean turned into a small dark enclosure My endless ocean of possibilities Now my burden Of people Not people, family Not family, my controllers My once infinite ocean turned into a small pond of solitude to carry myself forward with people looking toward - Their ocean of possibilities 1st PlaceIn Another World, the Titanic by Sanskriti Negi (11th Grade) In another world, the Titanic, Peaceably sailed away, Past the ice and dust and rock And lived to see the day. In another world, the Titanic, Never left its English shores, The great ship was deemed unfit to sail– And would sail nevermore. In another world, the Titanic, Was never thought nor conceived, So large a ship, so large a thought A beast of a different breed. In this world, the Titanic, Sailed far away, Never made it back home, But it is where it will stay: Beneath the icy ocean Breathing beneath the waves, A Rotting, sinking metal corpse, Did it recall the glory days? 2nd PlaceSetting the Sea to Find Me by Keila Torres (11th Grade) I wake up to see the sun’s rays To feel the rough crashes of the sea And touch the soft sand beneath Me How long have I been here? How did I get here? My ship is nowhere to be found, And my belongings just lay on the ground Is this my final destination? I do not know. I look around Trees span for miles And I spot a folder of files I pick it up, open it, and in a blink of an eye I’m trapped under a bright blue sky Dragged down, and down, and down I do not put up a fight I’m calm and alright I hear voices telling me to drown, drown, drown But I can breath just fine In fact, I take a deep breath And feel it through my spine I’m not scared And I realize I didn’t have to set the sea Because the sea is Me Honorable MentionOcean's Muse by Indigo Armstrong (11th Grade) I’ve come, as many others Looking to the seas, as they rush outwards Stumble inwards, and endless cycle as they chase their own inspiration Their muse to spark that motivation, The sun departs floating down as to let sleep take the dove As the moon rises above, the best light in the sky It glints in the waters as waves reach up trying to fly, I still stand in my lonesome The sand wedges itself between my toes, I dream to achieve that undying motivation Many people get lost with no inspiration, wishing for such motivation The ocean goes on not in desperation, not for fame, to gloat, to achieve It is unaware of itself unable to see it’s glory, unable to leave Getting lost in our woes I came to find to find my muse, yet I find I am at a loss Toss, tossing stones into the waters It becomes clear As the sun arises coming near, The sea cannot refuse I however, I refuse to rely solely on the motivation the muse can provide me I will not forever go outward only to fall back and never fully be, I use any motivation yet Determination, will be what I rely on The ocean holds endless possibilities, yet forever will follow towards and away from the shore Such a bore, I will wield motivation that comes my way Yet wield my determination to slay, no more pointless remedies I see my vast possibilities before me a different sea on it’s own, the determination I can use The City Library encourages a respectful and focused dialogue on blog posts. 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