Teen Services: Teen Poetry Contest

1st Place = Aaliyah Ali - "to whom it least concerns"

2nd Place = Sophie Gustin - "Edge of Adolescence" 

I know a lot of things, but darling

I don’t know a thing

Dancing ‘round my room

Bathing in the pale moonlight

Somedays I pinch myself just to feel at all

Oh, the things we do to feel alive

You remind me of an old friend

Or someone I’ve yet to meet

Empty picture frames I wish that I could fill

A planet overcrowded with lonely souls

A small girl in a vast universe

Somehow, some way I got here in one piece

I wish that I could tell you how, but darling

I don’t know a thing

3rd Place = Norah Baldwin - "Tea(ch)"

Momma had a charcoal-black tea kettle

that sung a high pitched tune every Sunday morning 

before the honey-colored beams of sunlight 

penetrated the sole window in the kitchen

her tea filled the house with a scent of 

delicate jasmine and earthy chamomile

it tickled my nose as she poured herself a cup

in the gold engraved china mug

the steam cascaded up towards the 

musty, yellow, peeling ceiling

and she blew on it like the strong October wind

that shook the tangerine-colored leaves 

from the lone oak tree in our quaint backyard

Momma saw me watching her from the rickety stair well

and gave me a gentle smile 

as she stirred sickly sweet saccharine with a spoon into her tea

The gentle clanging of the golden spoon against the rim made my spine tingle

Momma put her spoon down on a dingy, yellow paper towel

that was stained from Daddy’s coffee

she looked at me with her pale, jade green eyes 

and whispered, 

my dear,

life is like tea;

to make a good cup we must have just the right amount of ingredients

• tea leaves (2 sachets)
• sugar (1/2 tsp)

to have a good life, it is the same

• your family is your tea leaves, because you can’t have tea without leaves, but you can have it without sugar 
• your friends are the sugar, because they make your life just a lil’ sweeter

lastly, it must be sipped slowly

careful not to burn your tongue

because the best things come to those who wait

• All poems entered in the contest will be on display in GPL's Teen Department  starting the first week of May -- Come visit and see your poem on public display!
• All poems entered in the contest will be published in the first ever Teenburgh Poetry Contest Literary Magazine! Every poet who entered the contest will receive a digital copy and you can check out a print copy that will available on the shelf in the library's Teen Department. Publication date will be in late May 2019.

First Place = Dalia Zlata Roshal for "When The World Is Spinning Out of Control"

Second Place = C. Carter Holmes for "Intuition or Anxiety"

Third Place = Eliza Kaeding for "Creating Words"

• All poems entered in the contest will be on display in GPL's Teen Department  starting the first week of May -- Come visit and see your poem on public display!
• All poems entered in the contest will be published in the first ever Teenburgh Poetry Contest Literary Magazine! Every poet who entered the contest will receive a digital copy and you can check out a print copy that will available on the shelf in the library's Teen Department. Publication date will be in late May 2018.

First Place = Mossiah Smith for "Black Man's Plight"

Black Man's Plight

Only one way out of the black man’s plight

You gotta dribble like Kyrie or bounce like Mike

What are we supposed to do if we can’t fiddle with mics?

We join gangs, we get into fights

We sell dope, we stay out at night

All this, just to keep on the lights

From the moment we stepped upon this patch of land

It appears that we were forsaken, damned

If it’s not a dribble on a court, we’re unable to reach

Instead, we’re still with many of our black men unable to breach

Rifles held to the chest by a white man’s hand

Somehow still the white man thinks he’s damned

The littlest ounce of prospering makes the white man mad

If it’s not entertainment, there’s no love

We ain’t it, eons of ignorance, is what I blame it

Shut up and dribble, this generation's “Make me a Sandwich”

Maybe we need to stop asking for understanding

I can’t stand it the fashion in which they brand us

Economic suffering not killing us fast enough

We still in a noose, it just isn’t fastened ‘nuf

Only one way out of the black man’s plight

You gotta dribble like Kyrie or bounce like Mike

What are we supposed to do if we can’t fiddle with mics?

We join gangs, we get into fights

We sell dope, we stay out at night

All this, just to keep on the lights

They assassinate my character

I say, they’ve broken the marriage up

No longer are we united by the humanity that once bandaged us

100 plus years of suffering hasn’t abandoned us

Maybe it’s time to stop looking for the recognition

We all hurting and it’s time we recognized the condition

To all my brothers and sisters I wish that we could just kick it

To all my brothers and sisters I wish for our commitment

To all my brothers and sisters I wish you’d support our business

To all my brothers and sisters working for what feels like forever,

To all my brothers and sisters it ain't too late to come together

Cause too much black and too much love, equal forever

Second Place = Lynassa Lugay for "Love Letter" 

Love Letter

It is 11:11 pm
Instead of counting sheep to invite sleep, she counts calories
She fills up on warm water, saltines, and compliments
And the warm mahogany that once filled her skin has become gray and diluted like the love she had for herself

Baby girl, we were made for soft stomachs and realistic standards
For full breasts and sweet thoughts
Your lips drip with sugar for everyone else when that beauty should have your name written on it
These curves are a story that needs to read and protruding ribs cages do not allow that

It is 11:11 and my wish is that you fall in love with your intelligence
That you shed negativity not hair or pounds
That the cold in your lips is the result of ice cream sandwiches

Allow yourself to love the rolls when you sit

The chins from laughter
The friction of your thighs when you walk
Because, my love, how else would we spark fires?

Third Place = Noah Plattus for"Amusement Adventures"   

Amusement Adventures

I see the lights

They glow in the distance

I follow the path
Im finally back

The line is so long

But I stand there strong

The cart is there

I sit down it the chair

Ready to go

Please go slow!

We move up the ramp

I am the champ

But when there’s the drop

My heart begins to stop

People are laughing

People are screaming

I'm just teeming

To get off the ride

The stop has arrived

Im thrilled I survived