Dimensions in Education Today

Live Poets Society of NJ

Ashes Spring-Summer 2005 Winners, as well as the winner of The Easterday Poetry Award for the 2004-2005 school year, have yet to be determined. They will be posted on Labor Day 2005. Here are the winners from our Fall-Winter 2004 contest, who will also be in the running for the Easterday Poetry Award for the 2004-2005 school year.

FIRST PLACE WINNER

The Dictators
   after Pablo Neruda

A granite fountain stands in the center of an open plaza,
paved with gold. The trickling of water fills the empty
square and floats to carved stone steps, to heavy iron doors.
Shadows fall from razor peaks darkening the grand palace.
Splashing water journeys up blue tiled walls, above
the flag pole. The banner sings to the fountain,
telling of the suffering of its people.

Eight boys shot for daring to laugh; fathers executed
in the soccer stadium; children jailed, children burned.
Mist swallows their stories as it ascends, rising
past snowy mountains that gouge the sky, rising
to a cool sun. Beyond even cloud, where sky
fades from blue to black, mist whispers to the night,

wind listens and hardens into a fist, rolling and spinning,
crashing down upon the land in a torrent of rain. Streams churn
to brown rivers, swell, rampaging across the barren desert.
Dams burst, concrete and steel ruptured, flung into oily water
like copper casings from a machine gun. This spreading fury
engulfs the land, parting only for mud homes, toppling the city.

Steven Fredericks, MT, Big Sky High School

SECOND PLACE WINNER

In which we walk

Curry burns the back of my nose as my feet brush Nicollet pavement. I look
    to the right and see an old man climbing an ear of corn,
but it is only a poster. I remember us in the grasp of this man on kernels.

Glass is winking high around me. Mangoes and sticky rice swirl inside my belly,
       pressing against my naval. And all at once
there are your kisses, laced with metal and a veil of flesh,
       pressing too close for comfort. I look up to see if you are waving from the top a skyscraper,

But only a goose,
       frothing from his beak, passes overhead.
My pants feel heavy and it is a moment before I realize there is bamboo and coconut milk
in the cuffs of my jeans. Through the cracks in the buildings
      I see cars blurring by, their constant vibration crawls into the hum of every molecule.

      A woman by the side of the road pushes back her thinning hair before offering dill
and tomatoes through her teeth.

          I am still walking, passing Hennepin on my left, the road Cloud Man built as the congealing of
his desperation pushed snow into his lungs. I see you in the corner of my eye, but before I can catch you
in my eyelashes I am distracted.

            Distracted by the goose shrieking in the air, his frothing
saliva burning holes into the sidewalk as a
heart falls from my forehead

Danielle Miller, MN, PCAE Arts High School

SECOND PLACE WINNER

Coordination

Lips tremble, the night beats, the jungle breathes.
Allow me to journey into the night of your arms,
in the moisture of your eyes cast a boat and listen to the tale of a pearl.
Allow me to suspend time in the tangles of your hair.

The wind shatters into a thousand mirrors as it searches your face. A distant pennyroyal cries.
The fountain of your lips turns time into dust.
The sun ceases to bleed.
Darkness comes like the breaking of a leaf, like the smell of the sea.
You look at the jungle’s roof, starlight runs through our veins.
The string of mystery trembles when you smile.
You feel closer to me than moisture to grass, than warmth to a bird’s nest.

You ask me how long it takes for grapes to mature. I have no answer.
The brook is near.
Let’s take off our shoes.
Let’s understand the dimensions of sand.
Let’s place heaven between the two syllables of water,
And allow the fragrance of solitude to dwell under the bush.

The jungle ceases to breathe.

A twig breaks beneath us and the juices of herbs flow toward eternity.

Sepehr Rejai, CA, Rodriguz high school

THIRD PLACE WINNERS

Aphorism 146

she is using my books
to flatten the edge of the carpet
where it has rolled again
so obstinately back
like the wound in this house that is farthest from healing or
a curled lip the very beast
she has been beating back for years and
I'm not sure how Nietzsche
even in all his poignant glory is going to help her now
stacked there on the floor on the cover
his expression stern forever mouthing out a warning
against her endless fight with the monster
Raïssa Huntley, CO, Poudre High School

ephemeral

as lilac streaks alight the sapphire sky
the jolts of ice pervade my heart with rues
torn shadows of my soulless self now lie
dead static with the fading twilight blues
the distant rumble of the fatal knell
had summoned up a storm that flung the dove
into the caustic flames of bitter hell
and scattered ashes of a crimsoned love
on broken wings, you threw yourself aloft
into the fractals of oblivion
for shards of jaded moments is your soft
reflection lost in deep obsidian
what use to wish your aura not sublime
along with swirls of evanescent time
Sarah Leung, RI, La Salle Academy

Conformity

Clad only in a
Shaving-cream lace,
She conforms,
Pink, daisied razor
In hand,
Scraping off what
Was given
To please them.
Sarah Powers, OK,
Lawton Sr HS

HONORABLE MENTIONS

in random order

Evaporation - Brian Abels, OH, Coldwater HS
Motionless Intentions - Madeline Ruhlow, MN, Rochester
Babylonian Jargon - Stephanie Watanabe, CA, West Campus HS
Small entity - Lydia Mannion, WA, Medical Lake HS
White Bones Live - Sarah Tuttle, MA, Newman School
Coffee House in Winter - Tim Wilfong, CO, Denvrt School of the Arts
The Beginning of a New Farm Year - Matthew Eldred, MN, New Peague Sr HS
Clean Your Own - Diamond Bruner, VA, Brooke Point HS
An ethereal breakdown - Se Won Chung, VA, Dominion HS
Hiding Flaws - Hilary Giles, FL, Ft Myers HS
perched upon the wings of cidcadas - Brian Nelson, NV, Comm College HS W
Might Hike in the Wasatch Mountains - Jennifer Niedfeldt, UT, Lone Peak HS
Amanda stole a sunflower... - Emma Vandervest, IL, Oak Park/River Forest HS
The Future of Hometown America- Joshua Woehlke, KY, Heath HS
Revelation - Jenna-Rose, TX, Hargrave HS
Lucidity - Candice Vogelsang, PA, Coatesville Area HS
The Return to Thanatos - Divya Nair, GA, Central Gwinnett HS
Locked Door - Laura Mae Palmiotto, VA, Fluvanna County HS
Husk - Katherine Funke, IA, Dubuque
Backyard Faith - Lisa Marie Meissner, WI, Dominion HS
Caveat Emptor - Wendy Lin, TX, Plano East Sr HS
Her Story was not Sad Enough - Linnea Esselstrom, WA, Camas HS
Generation Gap - Daniella Zalcman, MD, Holton-Arms School
Deserted - Adrianna Meraz, WI, Milwaukee HS of the Arts
Tormentum Insomniae - Romina Vintila, IL, Mather HS
The Quiet Parisians - Cody Campbell Pruitt, NY, Stuyvesant HS
I AM - Alemania Sosa, CA, Ruben S. Ayala
pink fog - Pam Lorillard, TX, Robert E. Lee HS
We see her soft light... - Kate Blake, CA, Montgomery HS
A Southern Sparrow - Kristi Gulley, LA, Pineville HS
Icarus - Andy Li, TX, Texas Acdy of Math and Science
In Winter - Danese Nalence, NJ, Hunterdon Cent HS
The Green Door - Andrea Fruend, TX, Ursuline Acdy of Dallas
The Caged One - Evan Grabelsky, NY, Kennedy HS
Gordon Lane - Amy Shekarchi, TX, Reagan HS
One Last Drive - Phillip J. Marshall, CO, Arvada SR HS
Strawberry Dipping - Micaela Ryan, CA, Foothill Tech HS
God Conversations - Whitney Gammill, AR, Mount St Mary Acdy
Dancing to a Dirty Boogie Behind Your Back - Lauren Smith, ID, Mtn View HS
What She Wanted - Jonas Wisser, PA, Nazereth Area HS
Attraction - Cari Lynn Cuffney, NC, Athens Drive HS
Restraint - Chastity Peterson, AE, Lakenheath HS
Spending afternoons with coffee spoons... - Darcey Meus, NC, Northwest Arts
Rhapsody of a Midnight Dance - Farryl Last, NY, Mepham HS
Road to Sanctuary - Thomas Auxier, PA, Devon Prep
Night Life - Emily Justus, CA, Redwood HS
Homeless in an Alleyway on Boylston Street
Stephanie Silberman, MA, Needham HS
Learning to Skip - Megan Kerin, CT, Choate Rosemary Hall
Leaving Home - Lindsay Hill, NH, Oyster River HS
Canvalescence - Lauren Konczak, MI, Romeo HS
Yoe Are Home - Celeste L. McKinney, KY, Breckinridge Cty HS
Hungarian Rhapsody - Mischa Cantu, AZ, Thatcher HS
Ode to Chai Tea - Haley Fenton, Wa, Anacortes HS
(No Name)- Kristen Strubberg, MO, Cor Jesu Academy
If I Went to Sea Tomorrow - Crystal L. Shook, CO, Homeschool
To Be Free - Stephanie Kasza, OH, Lake HS
history repeated - Garbiele Johnson, WI, Beloit Mem HS
Woo Coagulated Xylem - Lunia Collado, RI, La Salle Academy
Roses - Elaina Erola, WA, Chinook
Facade of Peace and Sanctity - Angela Zito, MI, Rochester Hills
Jesu - Melanie Stam, GA, Cumming
Metamorphosis - May Anne Gamueda, CA, Edison HS
Soiled - Nirvania Quesada, PR, University of Puerto Rico HS
Restless - Katherine Museus, WI, Turner HS
.revenge. - Melissa Gore, NH, Calvary Christian School
Losing Time - A. Blythe Feiring, AZ, Mountain Ridge HS
Paper Wings - Lindsey Horner, TX, Marcus HS
Sonnet 7 - Narges Moltaji, CA, Monte Vista HS
Life in Faith - Kristian Enghusen, WA, Mountain View
Poetry - Katherine O'Brien, MT, Conrad HS
Hatred glides... - Allison Lawrence, GA, Appling Cty Comp HS
Revelation - Jessica Just, NJ, Secaucus HS
Belated - Sara Roberson, MO, Villa Duchesne
Lobster Demon God - Alec Morris, MI, Edwardsburg HS
Day at the Fair - Jessica Metzger, FL, Internatinal Baccalaureate
Victory of a Coward - Jessica Finocchiaro, MA, Presentation of Mary Acdy
Outside Your Element - Sarah Brown, NM, Onate HS
Memory Rests - Min Sun Kim, WA, Hanford HS
Skylark - Giancarlo Tursi, CA, Ulysses S Grant HS