Columbia Granger's World of Poetry®

2019 Student Poetry Contest Winners

    "To Patricia After We Parted"

by Jaemin Woo of the Woodberry Forest School,
inspired by Afterward by Douglas Malloch


I gift a seed to you who lacks a future,
inundated by indecision,
who waited, even procrastinated.
You're not an oak, although an oak grows
strong and true.
Bamboo will not do, for, like you, it bends.
A pear seed would be apropos to you,
to cultivate a pear or two.

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"Trinkets of Death"

By Alexandra Slabakis of the Marymount School of New York,
 inspired by Evening Star by Edgar Allan Poe.

He hides in corners where sun is strangled
Inside shadows born of decaying light.
Endless day’s corruption is delivered.
He trips into the alley, death surrounds him,
Allies are skittish throughout the exchange
He clutches the jewels that calm his mind.
These trinkets of death slowly rot his soul,
Leave his tattered eyes gaping at the sky.
His skin ghostly pale like a setting moon.
Lifeless, lank, lying limp, death surrounds him.
Endless day’s corruption is delivered.
Why does he crave the immortal release?
Perhaps to escape his lone life ... and mine.

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"Tribute To The Struggles"

By Cylus Garza of the Woodberry Forest School,

inspired by Rain by Edward Thomas

Those who talk the most, know the least of me.
They can’t begin to understand
How it feels to be chewed up and spat out
By the ones who say they love you.
How it’s like to lose someone close to you
And you couldn’t even save them.
They’ve never seen the closest thing to a
Father figure laying dead in
A coffin while your family drifts apart.
They were born in a good community,
Good school, and a good neighborhood.
Meanwhile I was born in a town full with
Violence, and no motivation
To do good in school and to change yourself.
I’ve left my home to become a
Better person so I can learn what it
takes to be successful at life
And escape the world I was born into
So my future kids won’t have to.
Those who talk the most, know the least of me.
I hope you can now understand.

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"The Magpie's Flight"

by Yaren Dinçtürk of the Robert College of Istanbul,

inspired by The House on the Hill by Edwin Arlington Robinson.

A magpie flew by my window today.
Beady eyes caught the sight of silver,
Silver of my family heirloom tray.

I hope the magpie is not here to stay,
For wind on its wings makes my teeth chatter.
A magpie flew by my window today.

That noon, years ago, while spring passed away,
Flickering light went dimmer and dimmer,
Light of my lantern, till the room grew grey.

Like cuckoo's eggs,                                  they lay.
                                     out
                                                  of
                                                           place
Eye socket, of the skull, there they shimmer.
A magpie showed me lapis stones today.

The lapis skull looked, not without dismay,
When rain bled river blue redder and redder,
And reed, on the river bank, danced away.
Magpies not only steal silver away,
 
For this I am growing worried, bitter
A magpie flew by my window today.
My breath, it stole away, not the tray.

See the winning poems from 2017 and 2018

See contest rules here