Poetry 99: high school winners

First place

6 word memoir

now, it’s hard to feel safe.

Shannon Moakley

Chico

16

By the time many of you read her poem, Shannon Moakley will be in Texas. Her family is relocating after losing their Paradise home in the Camp Fire, and as you can tell from her words, she’s still dealing with the effects of the disaster. Shannon enjoys writing—both poetry and journaling—and she loved being a cheerleader for the basketball and football teams as well as teaching cheer to the kids in the Paradise Junior Football program.

Second place

Regrowth

A town of chimneys

Twisted, blackened rubble

Scattered at their feet

Grieving trees

Dressed in black

Bow their heads

Old cars

Who dutifully carried their owners

For miles, for years

Stopped in their tracks

Abandoned

Droop morosely to the ground

Land of memories

Of homes

Friends

Family

Ravaged, left empty

Barren and cold

For the rain

That came too late

To flow through

A tainted enemy

And yet

Through charred earth

Grass rises

Raising its stalks

Bright, fresh green

To the sun

Together

They challenge nature

And spread over the hills

Anew

Lily Sypnicki

Chico

17

As the judges were reading the poems for this year’s Poetry 99 contest, Lily Sypnicki was on the other side of the world, in Japan, with other area high-schoolers traveling to help “build bridges between America and Japan.” Lily is the president of the Poetry Club at Pleasant Valley High School, and she enjoys sewing and playing video games in her free time.

Third place

Every Day, Every Day

I would like to take myself

Far outside

Of this sopping wet of sky,

Far past the grimace of the grayness

Of the walk.

I would like to lift the moisture up

From the rose hips

Drain out all the clogged

Pores of the beaten down

Ground beneath me.

I would like

To freeze in my mind

A memory, like a rusty penny

Because in between fences

And every day every days

I find the hidden glory

Of mud pies

And rambling branches

And close my eyes slowly

To let down all these bridges.

Seven Mills

Chico

16

The vivid imagery of Seven Mills’ poem is a clue to what her current favorite artistic pursuit is: filmmaking, specifically writing and acting. The Inspire School of Arts & Sciences senior takes full advantage of her school’s resources to create original works with her friends, the latest being a short film called The Adventures of Chance Finn, which she says is “about these spirits haunting our school.”

Honorable mentions

Foresight

Standing before a mirror

I check my chest

Undo the clasp

Peer inside

Beneath my heart

I spot a struggling flame

Wavering and weak

Nearly squashed by each beat

It flickers white, then pale blue

I cup water

Watch it shiver

In trembling hands

And douse the flame

It goes quickly

Without a puff of smoke

Thoroughly and mercilessly

Search out and drown

Any surviving embers

Before closing the door

And locking it tight

Lily Sypnicki

Numb

I was numb today

emptiness took me away

I will be back soon

Clarisse Arajuo

15

Chico

Story of My Life

Removed on a Wednesday

Rest stops in Missouri

Rides at Disneyland

Sitting on a frat boy’s couch

Tears on my face everyday

Elizabethann Sullivan

16

Chico