1999 Winners | The America Library of Poetry

1999 Student Poetry Contest

Division Winners

New York

My Dream
by Jessica Mandelbaum

Awakened by the sweet song of a young bird outside the window
I gazed around the quaint little cottage that held my bed
Pulling my patchwork quilt up and around my shoulders
To stop the cool morning breeze from stealing the night's warmth from my skin
I stretched beneath my covers to relieve the night cramps that held my young bones
Suddenly a hummingbird
Entered through my window
Hovering at the horn of a daffodil in a apple red vase on a table top beside my bed
A flock of butterflies followed behind him and began to dance in their flight
A celebration of the new day
Right above my bed!
A dream, this dream, my dream
I think I shall never wake!

Untitled
by Henry Mayer

She dances in a magic ballet
Weaving up and down, in and out
Lighting up the room with her beauty
She warms me to the touch
And provides a companion for me
Through the night
From her radiant heart I receive
The warmth and peace
That are indispensable to me
Then she flutters away...
And I light another candle

Pete's Coffee and Tea
by Duncan Carranza

A couple deep in conversation and deep in love
Talk about the future and decisions
While the young lady with a face too pale for California
But hair the color of pure energy
Glazes the scone for the sweaty old jogger in the back, panting, by his cappuccino,
(Given to him by that foxy female barista) while singing, loudly and out of tune,
With the Nat King Cole love song
Being played by the little speakers
Next to the glass cookie case
Which is covered by small fingerprints of a three year old girl
Dressed in scarlet, with a Tigger bonnet on
(the kind where the ears stick out)
The little girl paws at the case in desperation
The couple looks at the child, so sweet and innocent, and they sigh
"Do you want to start a family?" the husband asks
As the little girl throws herself upon the ground
Futilely beating her fists on the crystal barrier
Which separates her from sweet goodness
The wife responds
As she looks at the cookie monster
"Maybe we should wait a while"

The Waiting Room
by Emily Caruana

The door to the dentist office opens
A teenage boy enters the waiting room
He signs in and sits down on a scratch pink chair
Without a glance at anybody
He hopes he won't be recognized
For the strong resemblance he bears
To the woman and the girl who follow him in
He avoids the glaring eyes of the little sister
Who had to be dragged along to her brother's appointment
Nor does he acknowledge the mother
Who fails to notice the embarrassment on her son's face
As she picks up a magazine and takes a seat
He tries to give the receptionist a silent signal to call him in
But she is too engrossed in gossip with her friend on the phone
To see his tension
As well as the uneasiness
Of the brown eyed girl next to him
With shaking knees and flushed cheeks
She wonders how this Leonardo DiCaprio
Could have sat next to her

New Jersey

Segregation: A Question To Answer
by Jillian Dispoto

When you open up an e-mail, do the different colors disturb you?
Do you whisper to yourself, "The blues should not be next to the yellows"?
Or do you read the e-mail thoroughly and pay attention to what it's saying?
When you meet a person of a different race, does their face look not quite right?
Or do you welcome them with open arms and offer them an ear?
When you're at the ice cream shop, are you appalled by the double flavors?
Or do you say in a cheerful voice, "I'll sundae with strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate!"?
When you see a rainbow, do the different shades so close and friendly annoy you?
Or do you make a wish and hope that if you follow it there will be gold coins awaiting you at the other end?
When you see a child of a different background play with other children
Are you ashamed of the choice the children have made?
Or do you wish that you were a kid again having so much fun?
It just goes to show you that different doesn't matter when you look at it through a mirror
You have to squint a little bit and look harder
Because separating people or objects isn't always the correct answer

Portrait of Myself
by Deanna Vitoroulis

My lockets of hair
Are the striking gold
Bands that jewelers craft

My shoulders are stones
For they are so sturdy
They erect such a posture

My ears, delicate leaves
Of the blossomed pear tree
In the robust spring season

I've calm, sea blue eyes
The quiet waters
Of tranquility

I am the evening star
Forever seeing through
The pitch blackness
Of my ever changing world

Living within within walls
Of an explored mystery cave
Sooner or later
I'll have found myself

The Dreams of War
by Jonathan Hogan

Forty other men are
In this helicopter with me
Young men about
Eighteen to twenty years old
Plucked from their homes
As was I
We were thrown into this war
To fight men we don't know
Me we have no quarrel with
From a country we've
Never heard of
Our transport has landed
We join the fray of death
Commonly known as war
We hardly notice the missile
Soaring at the very ground
We are standing on
Our last seconds on this Earth
Are counted by modern day
Drums of war
The flutter of helicopter wings
And the beating of our hearts

My Warm and Fuzzy
by Alanna Cox

My eyes opened and who should it be before me?
My warm and fuzzy
Your tattered fur and dirty paws
Were perfect for a new born child

Your brown fur at night tickles my small chin
As I dream about far away places and adventures
I hold you tight and in return you keep me safe
I carry you around where ever I may wander
As I spill juice on your beautiful fur and crumbs fall upon your head
I wonder what you looked like when you were shiny and new

For you are my best friend, old teddy bear
I wonder if you were as important to my older sister as you are to me

To me you are my line to past years
When I was a soul floating in the air
You watched over my sister as she slept
But you must have went to dream land; for she closed her eyes
And could no longer breathe upon your soft head
She slipped away so fast and never got to see me
Her little sister
Holding her warm and fuzzy in my pudgy arms

Pennsylvania

I'll See You Again
by Jessica Masterton

You are gone, oh my beloved
You have vanished from my sight
Now you rest in joyful longing
Under our Lord's holy light
I must try as hard as I can
I must try with all my might
To understand why he took you
And left me with such plight
I hope you remember me
In your heaven far away
Where beautiful flowers bloom
On a misty summer day
I know you're watching over me
In that place up in the sky
But why did you have to leave me
Why did you have to die?
I'll see you again someday
And we'll be together there

To Gram
by Emily Wolf

White feathers drift by on a lonely breeze
For a moment I think it is you
I know you are gone, a victim of fate
Which seems almost normal under a placid sky of blue

But I still feel you here, I know it, I see you
I can sense you near, my heart flutters a moment
I know it can't be true
Certainly not under this placid sky of blue

Something touches my shoulders, I turn around to see
A purple petal falls from a yellow blossomed tree
I know it is you, you are reminding me, "I still watch you"
I call out, I pray, telling you, "I heard"
I sigh and sit back under a placid sky of blue

Your Angel
by Ashley Kozikoski

I am your angel
And I will always be there for you
No matter what you do
I will always love you
I will be there
To walk you through your darkest moments
To share in your deepest secret
And to comfort you when you need my love

I am your angel
And it will always be that way
Even when you too
Are someone's angel
I will still be there for you
I care
Though it may seem no one else does
And always remember
I am here for you when you need me
I am your angel

Waves of Time
by Peggy Paul

I sit by the window
Watching as the silver trail of moonlight
Dances upon the onyx tide
A single beam of light
Peeks through the dark curtain
Casting its ray upon the gentle waves
That lap weekly against the bulkhead
Just beyond the window
Where I sit in solitude

From my perch I watch that which cannot be seen
The wind's gentle caress
The serenity of darkness
The comfort of silence
Trails of light bounce on the undulating water
The smooth current that never ceases
That washes away all traces of yesterday
My eyes close
The blackness envelops me
And the tide flows steadily
To the dawn of a new day