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2008 Poetry Contest
Winning Poems
Out With The Old, In With The New by Courtney Flynn
Why Can't I Cry? by Alexandra Lestenkof
Dragon Princess by Natasha McElroy
Seeing True Colors by Jordan Ostreim

2008 Entries

I am! by Brittni Shay Bartnes
Blue by Alexxa Boden
What Lies Beyondby Lisa Luere
Cannibalistic Behaviors by Kaela McEldowney
"0 My Love, Can't You See?" by Samantha Orr
Memories by Savanah Overturf
March by Kathryn Sullivan
Just a Dream by Kendra Thornton
A Dream by Cierra Zimmerman

Out With The Old, In With The New
by Courtney Flynn

The wind tickles my face as the ground sucks me in.
The sun warms my body,
My reactions are as sharp as a pin.
My insides are dark,
And my outer layer looks light.
No one knows how long I've had to put up with this fight.
On a warm sunny day,
I remember this boy.
So innocent and eager to learn,
He made barely any noise.
Me and him, him and me,
We were made for each other and we both could see.
Every sunny day we would be together,
We would hang out in any kind of weather.
As the months went by, the sky was more grey,
And we didn't hang out, every single day.
He grew down as I grew up.
I stayed the same, and we began to loose trust.
He pushed me away, and brought his friends in instead.
Even though I was here, long before them.
I tried to fight back, but it kept getting darker.
It was like using black paper, with a black marker.
I could no longer see the old him.
I could only see this new kid that never let me in.
So as I walked alone,
The wind would scratch my face.
I was definitely in a completely different place.
I got use to this darkness,
And when the sun finally came out,
I would meet a new boy and take a new route.
This boy will always be there,
This boy will be like me.
Alone and forgotten,
He could see the real me.
The old boy was at the very bottom.
He left me, and now I'm leaving him.
This time my reactions are sharper than a pin.
The only thing different,
Is I'm happier now.
And that old happy boy,
Is the one who is down.
We have both moved on,
With completely different dreams.
This time I'm quiet and he's the one that screams.
I'm having more fun and hearing more laughter.
This is the beginning, not the end,
It's time to start a new chapter.

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Why Can't I Cry?
By Alexandra Lestenkof

"Daddy, I tied my shoe!"
"I never gave up! Daddy?"

Looking up, the world, whirled by.
The red came up out of the green and yellow.
Silent tears stream down Mommy's face.
Why is the world quiet?
The salt diamonds I so desperately need...
Are locked in a box in the corner.
It taunts me.

The three years that have passed could have been called happy,
But anyone could tell that now it is out of place.
I laugh and smile all day.
The night watches me stare at the wall.
Anyone should have seen what I needed most.
A hug, a kiss, an, "It's gonna be ok",
But the coarse belt, cutting my neck was my only holder.
The only eyes I could see filled with love
Were those brown eyes in the puppy I got in my crib.
Even today, with a patch of fur missing and a thread hanging out,
They are the only eyes I see filled with understanding and love.

I still look at the box in the corner.
Every night it taunts me.
The gems glisten beyond my ability to reach.
Looking down, the red went down into green.
The world slowed with those brown eyes filling my view
Then moving to my side and being replaced
By darker eyes filled with understanding and love.

The roughness of his fingers against mine
let go.
The only thing I want to say now is,
"Why can't I cry, Daddy?"

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Dragon Princess
by Natasha McElroy

The wings of a fire-breathing monster
Hair like a blazing phoenix
Creates a breeze at the beat of her gold wings
She lurks in the meadow at night
To gaze upon the moon light
She’s a vixen
She’s a monster
She is a dragon Princess

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Seeing True Colors
by Jordan Ostreim

We all start the same.     Black.     Obedient.
Then white. Eve received the change first
She whispers to herself, I am different
Scared of a possible future     she runs
Runs with rage,
Runs with ridicule,
Runs with red.
As she stops to peek behind her, others stare.
She hides herself
Hides her color,
Hides her shame,
Hides her pink.
Now the spotlight is on her.
She starts to sway
Starts to show illness
Starts to feel
Feel green.
She rummages her way through the crowd in search of black.
Obedient.        Peaceful.        Black.
Now depressed her tears
So deep
So full of sorrow
So blue.
She whispers in your black ear,
      Be different              Be a color 

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I am!
by Brittni Shay Bartnes

If you don't see me
Why do you judge me?

Why do you think you know me? You think
But your wrong
Because, you don't know the true me

I am the person you don't see
I am the person who gives up time for others
I am the person who isn't the true thing to others
I am the person who likes standing up for myself but doesn't

I am everything you don't think I am
I am everything you can't imagine
I am everything you don't see
I am everything you abhor

If you don't see me
Why do you judge me?
Why do you think you know me?
You think
But your wrong
Because, you don't know the true me

I am an animal at heart
I am an outrageous warrior
I am an artist with talents but doesn't show it
I am an excellent tutor

I am emotional
I am admiration
I am testy
I am moody
I am the person that you ignore
I am an excellent disguise
I am a person that you don't dare
I am everything you don't want to be
I am novels

If you don’t see me
Why do you judge me?
Why do you think you know me?
But you’re wrong
Because, you don’t know the true me

WHY DO YOU JUDGE ME IF YOU KNOW ME?
WHY????

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Blue
by Alexxa Boden

The rain splatters on my window.
Creating a sweet, simple melody.
Nature working as one.
To form a single, calming harmony.

Lightning flashes,
Thunder cracks,
Rain pours,
Now there’s no turning back.

I push my feet to run,
Pulling me farther outside.
I swing back the door,
Out of my way, aside.

Breathing hard,
Running fast,
Spinning round,
Forgetting what has past.

Rain seeps into me hair,
Dampens my shoes and clothes.
All of my memories are gone,
Everything I love and loathe.

Forgetting all,
Enjoying life,
Dropping hate,
Leaving behind all my strife.

If only for a minute,
I get to dance in the storm.
To erase all my memories,
To be clear and innocent, reborn.

Washing water,
Renewing winds,
New beginnings,
My time to fight and win.

Earth gives her final,
As I stand anew.
Refreshed, I’m ready to live.
Just as the sky turns blue.

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Cannibalistic Behaviors
by Kaela McEldowney

Failed expectations
hit by lies and fat rejection
failure scratched across my skin
bleeding red for all to see
advertising my misery
like a cheap whore
selling sex for satisfaction
feeling nothing real
losing my mind in fictional fantasies
filled with hope and sunsets
and walks on the beach
feeling perfectly content
living my fantasy world
until you jerk me away
and throw reality at me
like a shovel to the face
bringing forth the hidden scars
that hid so well
from the eyes of the judging public
with labels thrust upon me
daring me to conform to mediocrity
achieving nothing greater than what’s expected
they tie me down
and clip my wings
then throw me from the cliff
expecting me to fail
always expecting less
never more
so I plunge to the bottom
feeling most lethargic
watching the clouds dance across the sky
as my body rapidly descends
wishing that an angel would come from the sky
and play its gentle harp
and sing me to the clouds
where I can rest upon the wings of a hawk
and see the world through the eyes of an eagle
until it drops me back to the ground
and flies back to the heavens
and I’m left to walk alone
flightless
wingless
emptiness
with nothing accomplished
not flying
but walking
with a tree branch in hand
as I scratch the word failure into my skin
bleeding red for only me to see

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"0 My Love, Can't You See?"
by Samantha Orr

She's just a girl, walking alone on the streets
They don't really know her but they like what they see
They see a girl, lovely and withdrawn
They see a girl with such a sad song
And she walks alone with no one by her side
But the absence is choice and she's got so much to hide
They don't really know her so they hold no remorse
And she won't be telling, either, as she meanders her course.
For she loved once but that love was torn away
And so forever she wanders, waiting for love's day.
Along by her side, a dark passenger walks
Reminding her of everything she once had and everything she soon lost.

'0 my love, can't you see?
You've left me in such misery'
She cries aloud and on her pain rage did feed
The hope she felt, how it made her heart bleed
The feelings get worse and she turns sorry and wry
She throws her head back and looks to the sky.
She hopes to find him, her lover so dear.
She hopes to find him but there's no one so near.
Her heart; it aches and her mind; it clouds
There's nothing left for her in this part of town.
She rises again, feeling broken and lonely
Her hand clasps the air searching for the hand of her one and only

'0 my love, can't you see?
All these things you've done to me?'
She walks alone, feeling dejected
All she once knew she's since rejected
There's nothing left that she holds near
And as for everything she once held dear?
She's forgotten it.
Forsaken it.
Left it to die.
It's no longer important- no longer needs supply
Her feet take her away to places unknown
And there she feels comfort; she feels so alone
She finds a cliff overlooking the sea
And so quickly she realizes that she could be free
Free from the pain and free from the hurt
She thinks of such liberation and finds no state of alert.

'0 my love, can't you see?
Do you love me still, can you guarantee?'
Her toes found the edge as her arms lift up high
She let out a breath and suddenly began to fly
The wind whipped past her until she hit the ground
She felt not a thing, heard not a sickening sound
And her soul, if one believes in such things
Flew away on pristine wings
And once she arrived she came to find
That Love had found love of a different kind
Many years he'd not recalled
While she'd walked alone feeling crushed; feeling stalled

'0 my love, can't you see?
I've never felt such misery'

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Memories of the Dead
by Savanah Overturf

I fall I drop I hear you say my name
But yet I say yours and you don’t hear me
why I don’t know oh no I am dead
I see a light
should I go to it or not
Then finally I say wake I am home
a deep voice says
Then I awake to see many staring
hoping but now this is just a memory

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March
   Kathryn Sullivan

Stars, like snow, like rain
Falling all around
They settle on my eyes
They shatter, minus sound

Music in the night
Plays a roundelay
"Who will love me now?"
It cannot cease to play

Tears like snow, like stars
Falling faraway down
Hanging on to life
Don't let go-I'll drown

Eyes unceasing weep
See beyond all sight
The curtains of the deep
And hidden, final light

Phantom wings like clouds
Like light, like snow, like tears
Beat away the dark
The shadows, pain, and fears.

Light spills out like water
Washing away sin
I lie at the doors of Heaven
Begging angels to let me in

Counting one among them
Who passed a short time here
Before returning once again
Yet lingers still so near

A presence felt beyond this plane
He carries light like warmth
Someday I too will know that light
Someday, I too will soar.

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Just a Dream
By Kendra Thornton

He came to wake her from a dream. Tossing and turning, she seemed to be dancing in glass dust on a breeze. Lost in the twilight of dusk until the sun broke the surface of dawn.

Holding in truth, he shook her shoulder. She couldn't crawl through the darkness to get to the source. She sank deeper into the realm of a starless night.

Below her floating feet was the crashing tide that came and went with the blinking of the giant eye in the darkness above her head.

Swallowed into the void with breathless screams. Falling into her mind, watching the faces of clocks fly by.

The eye in the void was now tied to a golden chain, swinging like a pendulum in the paralyzing silence. She watched it with the hopeful voice bleeding to death in the background, fading out in helpless echoes.

Time stood still and all of the clocks hovering around her dropped to the floor. They shattered into the ground, screaming for their lives to be saved. Her hands covered her ears to the deafening sounds. All she wanted was the return of white noise. Gold chains from the eye captured her wrists, hoisting her up just under it.

Suspended in mid air with crying broken clocks crawling through the dark below, she felt the nip of the chains at her wrists. They cried in agonizing volumes, she wished for them to stop the sounds to silence.

Eyes flashed to pay attention to the giant eye that was widening with fear as the light ran over the blank ground.

Tears fell from the eye's lashes. The surface tension in the tears held to reflections of dawn in glittering splendors that disintegrating on the facade now littered with the corpses of clocks.

Turbulent waves came in as the eye blinked to clear away its tears. It seemed to be struggling to keep awake as the light came at a dash over everything.

She felt a cold hope swell inside her, blooming at the sight of illumination. The feeling gone a bit warmer as the light’s glare leaked on the glass surface of the eye, which creased its eyes painfully at the bright intensity.

The sun in her head flooded over the departed clocks, melting them one at a time, until together they formed a lake of silver below the pendulum.

The eye wept a flood on her head. Her dark brown hair was bleached with its tears. The brown hew running off her body to the floor below, tainting the silver sea.

Sunlight dominated the void in a solid force of lit hope. The chrome ocean seeped into the brown that came from the girl's hair. It morphed to gravel and dirt. Out of the brown and grey hues, seedlings turned out of the ground. Their new leaves snapping apart with fast growth.

She watched the eye over her go opaque at the cornea. It's brilliant red irises turned over to winter blue. The lens cracked, releasing her to fall upon the field of seedlings.

Her knees were drawn up to her chin that rest upon them. Her hands wrapped around her bent legs to hold them there as she watched the blank scenery turn to life.

The young plants filled out with broad leaves that were all a healthy green. Little strips of color adorned splitting bulbs. Then, the balls of leaves unraveled slowly letting colors peek through all of the intense green. All shades came alive around her feet as the silence of spring in her head blossomed from regret and death.

By now the whole of the astral plain was covered in a vast blanket of flowers that grew from the blood of the clocks.

A handsome figure sat down beside her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders. He picked a rose from behind him and without thorns, placed it behind her ear. Then he whispered in her ear.

" Wake up...

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