Contest: Work by young poets from Creeds Elementary School

THE INDEPENDENT NEWS

Ed. — The Independent News sponsored a poetry contest at Creeds Elementary School to coincide with National Poetry Month, and five students from the fourth and fifth grades were recognized for their writing in April. Their poems are published below. 

The poets are Keegan Anderson, Jacob Wandling, Autumn Gregory, Zoey Walker, and Vivienne Doucette. Jennifer Haws, the reading specialist at Creeds Elementary, coordinated the contest.

Doucette is the daughter of The Independent News’ editor, John Doucette, who was not involved in the judging.

“PAPER & PENCIL” BY JACOB WANDLING

Simple on the outside

With just lead and wood,

But if you look deeper in their meaning,

You can find their elegance.

When the tip of the pencil meets the paper,

Imagination sparks.

They bring you to a whole new world,

Where Dragons to Ninjas roam

Free all in these small but big things

That spark your imagination with no effort.

Maybe this was their meaning after all?

Wandling, 11, is the author of the winning poem for the fifth grade.

“HAPPINESS” BY VIVIENNE DOUCETTE

Happiness is a silver stapler,

Locking people together,

Never letting go,

It hurts to take it out.

Happiness is the full moon,

Sometimes shrinking – but always comes back,

Too pure and beautiful to be touched by evil,

All beings stand entranced.

Happiness is an enormous vacuum cleaner,

Sucking all the vengefulness and hate out of the world,

Pulling dirty thoughts from every corner,

Beating away at misery.

Happiness is a sparkling ocean at night,

Tempting and endless,

Makes you want to dive in,

Forever lingering.

Doucette, 9, is the author of the winning poem for the fourth grade.

“THE WIND SPEAKS” BY AUTUMN GREGORY

The wind tells me stories as the leaves fly around

It lifts me to the air but I’m still on the ground

The wind tells me a secret and I promise to keep  it.

It takes me to freedom where I run in peace

I turn to the wind when I must release

When reality takes its toll, the wind it’s me that it stole

Sometimes I must run away so the wind takes me  far away.

So run to a land where happiness grows

Where you have no lows

Where joyfulness grows on trees

You can run wild and free.

You cannot be sad and that sounds not so bad.

But what is happiness if it’s not balanced by sadness?

Gregory, 11, is the author of an honorable mention poem for the fifth grade.

“ALL I CAN THINK OF IS NOTHING” BY KEEGAN ANDERSON

I’m stranded out here in this big world of  nothingness

I can’t think of anything

I thought this would work, doing a whole lot of nothing

Able to think with no distractions

But that also meant no good ideas I just realized

But all the ideas I’m getting are about as good as  the rest of this place, nothing

This isn’t working all of this nothing is doing  nothing for me

But wait a second … I just realized

I just made all this nothing turn into something

This must be a sign …

I got it! Anyone can turn nothing into something  amazing,

When they put their mind to it.

Anderson, 10, is the author of an honorable mention poem for the fifth grade.

“GHOSTS” BY ZOEY WALKER

Ghosts are fragments of a soul,

Barley clinging on to yesterday’s life,

Their existence held by a thread,

Too weak to let go.

Ghosts are shadows,

Never noticed by people,

Unless you look very, very closely,

Then they shine bright.

Ghosts are melancholy creatures,

Gliding unhappily through memories long forgotten,

Lifting their sad eyes to the world,

Pleading to be heard.

Ghosts are windows to the past not remembered,

Whispering to the few humans who listen,

Shivering, shaking,

As they float through the lives of others.

Walker, 9, is the author of the honorable mention poem for the fourth grade.

© 2016 Pungo Publishing Co., LLC. Poems used by permission.