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POETRY

Teacher: Bart Susany

National Finalist

Orange Oasis

Ali Eustis

Grade 11

Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Sch

Atlanta

Teacher: Renee Gracon

National Finalist

Day at the Pool

Hannah Leathers

Grade 10

Druid Hills High School

Atlanta

Teacher: Betsy Eppes

National Finalist

It's In Our Hands

Jesse Abbott

Grade 8

Demorest

State Winner

Birdbath in the Fall

Roxanne Addison

Grade 11

Druid Hills High School

Atlanta

Teacher: Betsy Eppes

State Winner

Untitled

Dan Alcero

Grade 1

Lewis Elementary School

Kennesaw

Teachers: Kathy Frost and Karen Feathers

State Winner

A Walk in the Water

Jason Barbieri

Grade 2

Pharr Elementary School

Lawrenceville

Teacher: Staley Smith

State Winner

The Colors of a Fish

John P. Bieller

Grade 5

Columbia County 4H

Martinez

Teacher: Shirley Williamson

State Winner

Lady in the Lagoon

Andy Cornett

Grade 11

Druid Hills High School

Atlanta

Teacher: Betsy Eppes

State Winner

My Fish and Frog

Christopher Dong

Grade 3

Tritt Elementary

Marietta

Teacher: Tamera Neal

State Winner

Little Fish

Lillie Duncan

Grade 2

Maranatha Christian Academy

Cumming

Teacher: Lyndrid Patterson

State Winner

Wasting

Molly Duncan

Grade 12

Druid Hills High School

Atlanta

Teacher: Betsy Eppes

State Winner

My Armadillo

Emily Galberd

Grade K

Shakerag Elementary School

Duluth

Teacher: Karen Klein

State Winner

Untitled

Mikala Groshong

Grade 3

Lewis Elementary School

Kennesaw

Teachers: Kathy Frost and Karen Feathers

 State Winner

The Creek

Andrew Henderson

Grade 3

Chalker Elementary School

Acworth

Teacher: Iris Rice

State Winner

Clean Water, Clean Life

Chieh-Yin Kuo

Grade 4

Atlanta

State Winner

Would You Do it: Save?

Michelle Landry

Grade 12

Druid Hills High School

Atlanta

Teacher: Betsy Eppes

State Winner

Untitled

Alona Lazarenko

Grade 12

Evans

State Winner

Serenity

Taylor Morgan

Grade 9

Bulloch Academy

Statesboro

Teacher: Diane Hathaway

State Winner

Rushing Water

Kelsey Primis

Grade 8

South Forsyth Middle School

Suwanee

Teacher: Patti Grammens

State Winner

Watershed

Jenna Rubia

Grade 8

Coastal Middle School

Wilmington Island

Teacher: Mary Jo Fina

State Winner

Love Fish

Heather Rutt

Grade 12

Evans High School

Martinez

Teacher: Pamela Segers

State Winner

Nature's Glories

Sushma Sudhi

Grade 8

J.C. Booth Middle School

Peachtree City

Teacher: Jennifer Ritter

State Winner

Mosaic Turtle

Grace Willhoite

Grade 2

Casa Montessori School

Marietta

Teacher: Hedwig O'Brien

State Winner

Poetry 07

Jump to
ART

At Centennial Olympic Park

Let us watch them dance, baby bro

Your little black body nestled

In my side, like a small seal,

The fountain water raining all ‘round us

Confetti from a piñata

Thoom—thoom, thoom

Drums beat on naked skins

As they twirl on the watery pavement

Raindrops splashing in slow motion

Over their black, white, yellow, and tan bodies

Syncopation

Thoom—thoom, thoom

Two claps and again they go

Through the five interlocking rings,

Fountains shooting into heaven, fists pumping through skies,

Droplets cascading across waiting tongues

Thoom—thoom, thoom

Do you feel the earth dancing,

Her wide hips grooving?

She gathers in her mighty arms

The wet, crescent footprints shaped like broken souls

Strewn across the pavement.

Each stomp breaks away

A chain

Each leap unshackles

A limb

Don’t be scared!  My arm is around you.

In your face, I see my own.

These droplets on your bare brown back

Are quivering, not crying.

Open your eyes, baby bro,

The world is dancing.

Shalini Ramachandran, grade 12

Parkview High School

Lilburn

Teacher: Mary Lynn Huie

National Finalist

fragments of a world forgotten

[Dedicated to the children who suffer through needless violence day after day. Rwanda 1994.  Sudan 2006.]

As shrieks rent the cracks, peeling sky like knives scouring chests,

I run to this river and lean close, inhaling rancid pollutants,

hoping that the vaulting rush of water will

drown out the

Noise.

Perhaps, at this same moment, the Sergeant is watching His laundry water drift downstream, conniving how to kill my kind

as our dirt

Mingles.

The death of the first ripple births the next, consuming the other with

malice and intensity, as He sits on His cushions

with blood on His

Hands.

As I sit on this burnt grass, bleeding through my hands, awaiting with painful

helplessness to the next ripple.  Time’s Winged Chariot does not approach;

it remains burning in the sky with Phaeton presiding over further

charring our bodies, as guns and

Screams

Goad us to rise from our seats as we break away in Shards, not in

smooth fossils like Rome, like Greece, like Egypt,

in Shards that shatter as we

Run.

When He dies, His blood will float downstream, uniting with mine, with my

village’s; when I die, He will never see my blood

and neither will

You.

Yet I feel the earth pulsing.  I feel the droplets singing.  I feel the waves leaping.

In this moment of eternity, empires crumble, towers fall, kings topple;

He crouches on the banks, awaiting immortality—

But I choose to

Swim.

 Om Shantih, Shantih, Shantih

Shalini Ramachandran, grade 12

Parkview High School

Lilburn

Teacher: Mary Lynn Huie

National Merit           

Pot Luck

              Inlays dance

Hugging, curvaceous lips

The mossy bed

Imagination, a lush picture

Moistened hardness

  -a smooth pebble

Sinuous curves; incongruous edges

Constant tracing

  -the sensitive hands

Rise, misty,

The straight stalks

Reaching the canopy

                                   of embrace

Caila Blanton, grade 10

Parkview High School

Lilburn

Teacher: Mary Lynn Huie

National Merit

Vein

The river ran dry with the passing of the monsoon season,

leaving behind stones and debris,

blue with little consequence.

Water may rush elsewhere, but not here,

though the thicket seems to grow in

and the plants take root between the crevices.

The wild bird’s call resounds with

subtle moisture, wings carrying heartbeats

into the distant mountains.

I walk the bed like a doctor coming

to terms with a patient, called up

before his time.

Ting Gou, grade 12

Parkview High School

Lilburn

Teacher: Mary Lynn Huie

National Merit

The Passing

If you stand a certain way,

back to the sun,

you can see your reflection over

the edge of your canoe, disappearing into 

the shadow of a wrinkled mountain.

Behind you, water

in front of you, water

and in the boat, reminders of dry land:

goods for trading, a cooler,

some coconut shells

And in this overcast day you

put your hands in your pockets,

and stand, for once not

father, not husband, not brother,

but man, mountain, canoe,

your reflection imprinted on the waters,

your tired arms simply a vehicle

carrying the earth from one place

to the next.

Ting Gou, grade 12

Parkview High School

Lilburn

Teacher: Mary Lynn Huie

National Merit

Gentle Waters

It is in the cancerous midsummer sun

when the burning sky seems to

choke on the gluttonous heat

that the marigolds purse their

soft mouths with exhaustion

and remember with abounding fondness

the gentle pitter-patter of endless raindrops

that had nourished their tender roots

and softened their fledgling petals in the Spring.

I only wish I had realized before it was too late

how greatly your love has sustained my life.

I just want to say, very simply, with a brimming heart,

Thank you.

Shalini Ramachandran, grade 12

Parkview High School

Lilburn

Teacher: Mary Lynn Huie

National Merit

The River

Trade work for sleep

Trade sleep for hunger

Give the hunger back to yourself.

The dog buries the bone under the trees riding in the night,

She carries a dream in her mouth.

A day of high clouds,

The odor of honey suckle is absorbed through her skin.

Dream dog, lick my wounds,

Take this body with you,

Both of us drifting down the river,

At the edge of the river

A soul drops its kindling,

Builds a small fire.

Preena Desai, grade 12

Tucker High School

Tucker

Teacher: David Hirsch

National Merit

The Circle of Life

The waterfall leads into a river.

 The river leads into the ocean.

 The ocean is home to many species of life.

 The life forms will make new generations.

 The offspring will make other generations.

 This is one of the many circles of life that there are.

David Polefrone, grade 2

Casa Montessori

Marietta

Teacher: Cyndia Hunnicutt

State Winner

River Alive

There once was a river that was alive.

Fish and frogs could swim and dive.

All the animals were happy as could be.

They even sang a song for me!

The fish clapped his fin.

The frog gave a croak.

Their rule for pollution was not a joke!

Their rule for pollution kept their water clean

For you and me and every human being.

Cole Kilby, grade 2

Upson Lee South Elementary

Thomaston

Teacher: Sheryl Farr

State Winner

The Watershed of the World

A watershed of cultures,

The world has to offer,

A mix of many cultures,

Streaming through our lives,

Pouring by our lives,

Like minnows in a river,

Rushing by the rocks,

So many colors and cultures,

Just like this world of ours,

We have so many people,

Talking different languages,

We do not understand,

How so many come through our lives,

We know that there is one watershed,

Where so many people,

So many cultures, languages, and colors,

Stream by us never knowing, Never knowing,

That there's one and only one of them,

In the watershed of the world

Thomas Gaines, grade 6

Flynt Middle School

Griffin

Teacher: Susie Gaines

State Winner

 My River

Oh how the busy rush of the day can decrease your imagination,

Or put restraint on your concentration.

Always busy, always gone,

Somewhere distant, never home,

With someone, never alone,

But when I escape to my river, all stands still...

The elaborate bubbling of the water within,

Shows us how the world began.

But when I found my penny, to toss it in and wish,

I thought about that penny, how it might affect those fish.

It's sad to know those chemicals, that portray that nasty taste,

Is discharged into my river, and puts it's life to waste.

What can I do to change it? Not hang my head and cry!

Yes I'm certain I can change it, but I've just got to try.

To give it all I have, to change the wrong to right,

They can't destroy my river! At least not without a fight!

Because the fish and plants and water, are all too precious gifts,

And friendship is what's priceless, it's life's eternal gift to give.

Skye Mills, grade 6

South Effingham Middle School

Guyton

Teacher: Shannon Heard

State Winner

A Sunset

Take an open ocean toward the end of the day.

Roll away most of the tide.

Gather the crabs and sea anemone that are left behind.

Stir in the sound of sea gulls and the distant waves clashing together.

Cover the earth with the salty smell of the ocean.

Paint the sky with color and peace.

Add in orange, pink and yellow.

Remove the life guard’s whistle and the children’s laughter.

Smooth out the sand, and

Combine in some driftwood.

Sprinkle the sky with shades of tranquility.

Watch the sun melt beyond the horizon.

Measure today, and

Prepare for tomorrow.

Rebecca Shafron, grade 6

The Davis Academy

Atlanta

Teacher: Molly O’Brien

State Winner

The Yellow River

Skipping rocks with my dad are some or the best times that I've had,

We'd park the car and sit a spell, on the banks of the river in Porterdale.

My dad likes to fish, he'll catch catfish and brim, and while he does this I'll go for a swim.

Then in the evening when the sun goes down, daddy will tell the best stories around.

The yellow river provides the stories he'll tell, He grew up in Georgia in Porterdale.

He tells of the times he'd come home after school and run to the river it's more fun than a pool.

Big rocks he would climb and back down he'd slide, and on an old tire tube he'd go for a ride.

His family was poor and money was tight, but the river provided a meal every night.

They'd have catfish and turtle stew, and in the summer and fall there 'd be poke salad too.

He tells of the rock house, the race and sand bed, where he'd catch the big fish that kept them all fed.

Those were the good days daddy liked them just fine, no computer games just a river and a vine

Provided kids with hours of fun; everyone played when their work was done.

Now, days are different everyone's fast, but I have this river and memories to last,

I hope people will care for it and keep it clean; so when I grow up it still can be seen;

As the beautiful river it was and still is, I hope to have it to share with my kids;

I want them to see the crane as it flies and calls to its mate it will keep till it dies.

And logger back turtles that graze in the sun, I want them to play in the sun and have fun.

So come share our river, you'll love it too. God made it perfect for me and for you.

Linda Hall, grade 5

Porterdale Elementary

Covington

Teacher: Lesley Hanchey

State Winner