HIGH SCHOOL POETRY COMPETITION 2022 FOURTH PLACE WINNERS AND HONORABLE MENTIONS

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Fourth Place Winners

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The People on the Boat

by Victoria Vu, Grade 12, Bishop Kenny High School

Into the darkness, they attempt to soar.
Hiding underneath the night sky cover.
Wanting Nature to hold in her downpour.

Going to a place they’ve not seen before.
Leaving behind their brothers and mother.
Into the darkness, they attempt to soar.

The waves constantly thrash around and roar,
But they do not dare try to uncover.
Wanting Nature to hold in her downpour.

A future place filled with riches and more.
There would be many things to discover.
Into the darkness, they attempt to soar.

Waves rise each day which they try to ignore.
In the water, as they try to hover,
Wanting Nature to hold in her downpour.

If fate may have it, will they have found shore?
Can their hope still have chance to recover?
Into the darkness, they attempt to soar.
Wanting Nature to hold in her downpour.

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Fireflies

by Isaac Wachsman, 11th Grade, American Heritage School Boca/Delray Campus

A speckle of light, and then two, and then three
A hundred, one thousand lights flash before me
Around me a painting like stars in the sky
Around me are one thousand fireflies

If I’ve stayed out far too late in the park
And if my path out of the forest is dark
There are always old friends on whom I can rely
Hundreds and hundreds of fireflies

I’ve captured one-hundred and six in a jar
They buzz out sweet songs when I strum my guitar
I think they are really just luck in disguise
My dime-sized companions, my fireflies

Even before I was here on this Earth
Even before my great-grandparents’ birth
Even ‘fore Thomas invented the light
Those trusty old fireflies lit up the night

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Untitled

by Joseph Juhasz, 9th grade, homeschool

When heaven is by woolen clouds conceal’d,
The sunless sky becomes the darkest jet,
And earth doth quake from Zeus’ wrath reveal’d,
And wind and rain bombard, and wave their threat
To seize men’s homes, and kick them ‘bout the land.
Then lightning slashes through a woven cloud,
Revealing buildings that would grandly stand
But for the tempest bringing down the proud.
And now, destroy’d remains of dwellings strong
Are strewn about the land in wreckèd dust
As if a monster blind with haunches long
Attacked the ruin’d cities with a gust.
__When I don a large hat, I cause such doom
__When stumbling blind into the living room.

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Self-Detachment

by Peter Mahfouz, Grade 12, Bishop Kenny High School

Reigns of pain and grief restrict the Heart’s flight,
And passion lives for whom you mustn’t hold.
The Heart drains from blooming red love to white.

Love in the soul sees nothing but faint light
But the Mind leaves the darkness of the cold.
Reigns of pain and grief restrict the heart’s flight.

Even though the Heart’s love stands true and tight,
This love, the Mind sorrowfully withholds.
The Heart drains from blooming red love to white.

The Mind strikes at the Heart with a great bite,
And stops the Heart from retrieving its gold.
Reigns of pain and grief restrict the Heart’s flight.

The Heart wails and whines and struggles to fight,
But the Mind is too great a force to fold.
But Heart drains from blooming red love to white.

The Heart sighs and cries through the fading sight
Of the love to which could not be controlled.
Reigns of pain and grief restrict the Heart’s flight.
The Heart drains from blooming red love to white.

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Honorable Mentions

End of the Innocence

by Sydney Leblo, 9th Grade, Lowell High School, San Francisco, California

There once was a little girl
as happy as can be.
She loved pigtails and stories
and life was carefree.

She drew pictures of places
where unicorns could run.
Her days were long and endless
And always filled with fun.

Then one day she grew up and
She met friends at school.
They were happy and friendly.
She thought they were cool.

Her pictures became different.
No longer the kind to draw.
They were selfies and candids.
God forbid they show a flaw.

Post it for a comment.
Take the snap for a chat.
Did you see what she said?
I hope I don’t look fat.

And the once little girl
who was happy as can be,
realized that her life
Was no longer carefree.

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Arrogant Conception

by Marisol Saenz, Grade 12,  Dover Sherborn Regional High School

A gray kaleidoscope controls our sight,
Our vision skewed with beads to blur the mess.
A mere dilemma kills remaining light.
For luring gray, we humans acquiesce.
We’re wandering through the mountains of our minds
While wondering the stations of our thoughts.
The resting-place remaining undefined:
A self created jail that we’ve forgot.
Defiance! Pulverize the cloudy glass,
For we can’t recollect the faded mien.
The broken lens holds truths we can’t surpass:
With blackened eyes, our morals hide unseen.
Compliance smiles when we deny our cries
Where tears imply our longing to defy.

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Sonnet to Home

by Sai Kaushik

The black sky stretches far above my head,
Peppered with millions of grains of salt.
Far off, into the horizon they spread,
Seemingly infinite, without halt.
Dark gray roads lead off into the yonder,
Underneath a steadily sinking moon,
The land is mine to forever wander,
A beautiful gift, a blessed boon.
What wonderful skies, with such sacred land,
What elegant mountains, what pristine rills,
What more can one possibly demand,
Than this realm, with all of the joy and thrills?
It really is beautiful and divine,
This precisely made land that I call mine.

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Miss Maria the Sea

by Grace Folkers, 10th grade Liberty Common High School

Beware! No one knows the secrets below,
Masked by the salty waves of the sea.
Waters churn down deep and pull back to show,
A glimpse of the shore fading out quickly.
She hides her secrets in dark depths unknown,
And loses control when a storm comes through.
One cannot tame her, she flows on her own,
Begging me to touch the twinkling blue.
The birds will not sing of the things she hides,
Or of the power concealed deep within.
Will the sands of time now survive the tides,
Or will her footprints be lost in the wind?
Her name is Maria, made wild and free.
She brings salt and life, for she is the sea.

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The Monsters Within

by Bailey Chin, Grade 12, Bishop Kenny High School

You are your own worst enemy, but why?
Just like quick sand and all becomes unclear.
Your best is just an ineffective try.

Questions of self doubt arise and you sigh.
“Why does everything I know disappear?”
You are your own worst enemy, but why?

Harsh reality that must be a lie.
“Perhaps a moment I can persevere”.
Your best is just an ineffective try.

The voices unbearably amplify.
Chaos pervades the mind shown through a tear.
You are your own worst enemy, but why?

You tell yourself deny, deny, deny.
Future as a failure you just can’t hear.
Your best is just an ineffective try.

Deep breath, stay focused, all will pacify.
But you can’t move, you can’t breathe from the fear.
You are your own worst enemy, but why?
Your best is just an ineffective try.

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