Events

National Poetry Month Contest

Our seventh annual National Poetry Month contest winners are listed below. A reception for participants and their families will be held at Present Tense on May 4, 2013 at 2:00 pm.

Avelin Maguire Tomidy
Grade 2, Batavia NY

  • Owls
  • Owls
  • Gentle in the wind
  • Graceful
  • Silent
  • Searching for prey
  • The owls eyes
  • Like two moons that sparkle in the darkness of the night
  • I wonder how the feathers don't ruffle when they swoop on giant wings?
  • How owls are greater than the birds that live when the sun is brighter?
  • How the owls search in the darkness of the night?
  • I feel like I am an owl myself - swooping, dashing with great talons

Wesley LeTourneau
Grade 5, Alexander NY

  • The Night
  • So mysterious
  • Filled with stars.
  • Howling of the wind.
  • Barking in the hills.
  • Darkness like a wave of crows
  • The end is near,
  • The light coming from the hills;
  • Slowly it leaves to come again.

Caleb Milligan
Grade 8, Pavilion NY

  • Basketball
  • The lights flicker as I walk into the gym.
  • My sneakers tied perfectly and fit to my feet.
  • The thumping of a ball when it hits the gym floor when it's just me in there to hear it.
  • The lights still not on all the way as I shoot the ball.
  • Swish.
  • The sound of when the ball grazes through the net without touching the rim.
  • I feel at home when the ball is in my hands.
  • Nothing can overcome the feel of my hands moving the ball when I play.
  • Absolutely nothing.
  • I dribble and shoot as long as I can, because I love it.
  • When I dribble the ball pounds into the floor.
  • I make it go faster and faster until it goes as fast as it can.
  • Sweat is what I want as I practice. I practice and try to make the sweat pour down my face, unlike many others.
  • Swish.
  • So many shots that I will take and I will make them because I will keep practicing.
  • I shoot and shoot and soon I become exhausted, but I keep playing.
  • I attempt all the shots that I will encounter when I play.
  • Three pointers, layups, jump shots, dribble pull-ups, and one of the most important, free throws.
  • I do my routine of three dribbles then a spin of the ball in my hands, then shoot.
  • That routine has been performed many times with great success.
  • Making shots are huge in basketball and I have prepared myself for shots during games and practice.
  • Swish.
  • I take my time to do many different layups that will help me later on.
  • Reverse layups, floaters, finger roles, and various layups off the backboard that will be very effective.
  • Dribbling followed by shots and the sweat drips during both.
  • I love this game and that is why I do this.
  • Shot after shot will help me to be great in high school, college, and hopefully beyond.
  • I work hard and it will help me do things.
  • And most of all I love this game and all the things in it from the shoes to the game winners, I love it.
  • Swish.

Miranda Moore
Grade 12, Batavia NY

  • Skyfall
  • Endless railroad tracks
  • lead us to our unknown,
  • the afterlife.
  • Where our blue clouds turn into skyfall.

  • But why do we have to die?
  • Did we not play our chips well enough,
  • in this complicated affair?

  • Maybe it's just us,
  • the only planet where this happens.
  • The only place where time is limited,
  • like a countdown to the final buzzer.

  • Someone always loses.
  • Someone's sky always falls.

Matthew Burch
College, Batavia NY

  • Prelude of a Reverie
  • Darkness
  • A billow of fog forms
  • The forest surrounds our splendor
  • Glorifying nature
  • Traveling to an unknown destination
  • Our thoughts guide us
  • Instinct has lost hold of its boundary on us
  • Through the forest lies the unknown
  • Echoes of creatures and feet stumbling
  • Trees swaying as if dancing to music
  • Together, yet alone
  • Vast wilderness inside our minds
  • Behold
  • Silhouettes in the distance
  • A voice in the distance
  • Many voices
  • Fear and curiosity
  • Withering leaves crackle under our feet
  • Into the unknown we travel

Olivia Dayton
Honorable Mention, Grade 4, Alexander NY

  • Music
  • Music, music, the world is your lyre.
  • The birds and rivers sing, even the
  • flowers, in their own silent way make
  • music to brighten our day.
  • The butterfly sings in whispers that no one else can
  • hear, that doesn't mean they're not there,
  • crickets and grasshoppers too.
  • The cricket's miniature violin and grasshopper's song
  • make music for the world.

Joseph Saxman
Honorable Mention, Grade 5, East Bethany NY

  • View of a Waterfall
  • Rushing water like falling clouds
  • Rock rubbed off from millions of years ago
  • Green plants, brown rock walls
  • A dark cave
  • A lone bird flying
  • A tree tripped up with the waters' stream
  • A big pine tree
  • How beautiful a view can be