The winners of the Scotts Valley Arts Commission’s annual “Verse in the Valley” poetry contest were announced at a June 6 city council meeting. There are first, second and third place winners in five different age group categories and a first place winner in the class poem category.
Scotts Valley Patch will run the winning poems in each category throughout the week. Today, we have the middle school category winners. Read the kindergarten through third-grade and class poem category winners here; the fourth- through fifth-grade category winners ; the middle school winners ; and the high school winners .
First Place–Meg Reese
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“One Night My Grandma”
Taught me stories that piggyback stars
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from her Santana 22. She sailed us
beyond our dishwater bay; she threw
anchor just before the canyon drop.
As darkness displaced water and sky
she sighed, “You should know that
heaven calls me by name these
days.” Then she said the myths
all the same.
Sunrise blew us back to the harbor;
back to the fishermen who leaned to
her wink and wig’s honey bangs. They
watched, I watched her wince as she
knotted our endless lines. Cancer had
shaken her hands, but her fingers
never forgot the old art.
By noon I was sitting on the sun
warm layer of sand, hunger working
me the way only children understand.
Screams from the Jet Star trailed behind
her as she descended the boardwalk
steps, my saltwater taffy lunch spilling
out of her tanned arms.
Now I want to breathe in the bone
yard behind the elementary school, but
my chest tightens there. She passed
soon after that night.
Second Place–Nancy Hofmann
“As She Walks By …”
Her skirt curving like the flight of birds
reminds me of my mother’s hair
so long and silver in my mind,
the swish of hand on skin,
soft print of love I feel before I wake.
She sashays like milk-froth
like a breeze that beckons leaves to fall,
like sweet humming when my heart is full
and spills out sound.
She has the spin of freshly-laundered clothes
minueting in the sun,
a walk like proud waves,
like taste buds bursting,
leaving small tart tangos of color in her wake.
Third Place–Jonathan Powell
“Life is a Coin”
What do you do?
When you realize
Life is like a coin
You can spend it
Now? Later?
However you want
But you only spend it once
What do you choose?
Buy a sight to see?
Or food to taste?
Or troubles and greed?
You purchase everything
Giving up one for another
It’s your choice
Whether to spend it
Now? Later?
And it all makes a difference
Your coin is yours
Some people’s old and rusted
Some shiny and new
But it’s always a coin so it can always be spent
But it’s whether you want to
You pick what you buy
Do you buy junk?
Or something of value?
A cooler you?
Or be yourself?
Either way it’s your coin
My coin is spent
I chose my purchase
And it’s made me who I am
I purchased a life of joy
Everything has a happy ending
Everything turns out right
A positive outlook on life
I can see the good
And let me say
It was the best purchase
I’ve ever made
So what’s your purchase?
Now, or later
You will have to decide
And when you do
What life will you purchase
With your coin?
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