Events

National Poetry Month Contest

Each year Present Tense holds a poetry contest and announces the winners at the end of April, which is National Poetry Month.

This year's prize winners were announced on April 25, 2008. This year's selected poems are posted below.

Alexis Wahr

Grade 3, Batavia NY

  • Books
  • I read and read books
  • so many that I like
  • Ramona, Junie B. and The Puppy Place
  • all so good!
  • I'd rather read than take a hike.
  • I read and read books
  • so many that I like!

Brianna Caldwell

Grade 6, Albion NY

  • Colors
  • If I were white I would be a beautiful
  • horse galloping through the hills
  • in West Virginia.

  • If I were red I would be a huge juicy
  • apple that ripens in the sunlight.

  • If I were yellow I would be a gorgeous
  • sunflower shining in the
  • day's bright light.

  • I wish they could see
  • the person I could be.

  • If I were blue I would be a
  • breathtaking sky.

  • If I were pink I would be a tulip
  • blooming in the spring's fresh air.

  • If I were green I would be a new leaf
  • springing forth new life.

  • If I were orange I would be dazzling
  • as a summer sunset.

  • If I were black I would be words leaping
  • off the pages of a love story.

  • If I were all these colors put together
  • I would be a magnificent masterpiece of art.

Ariana Aliasso

Grade 5, Batavia NY

  • Present Tense
  • Have you heard of Present Tense?
  • It is built inside a fence.

  • It is located on Washington Avenue,
  • and you can find books as well as other things too.

  • If you want to find a book,
  • then don't use a fishing hook
  • but look inside the nook filled with books.

  • Dive into reading
  • good books are worth repeating.

  • Present Tense is an interesting place,
  • and it puts a smile on every reader's face!

Jeffrey Klein

Grade 6, Alexander NY

  • Nature
  • The cold earth is lush with wind
  • blue skies and clouds that fly
  • My rooster has feathers like a green leaf
  • The sun is late to rise underneath the horizon
  • flowers bloom in spring as rain clouds splatter in the sky
  • at night the sun goes away and ends the day

James Johnston

SUNY Brockport, Byron NY

  • Scream, Not So Quiet
  • walk through the line
  • call it what you want it’s still third grade cafeteria
  • but with a card cause with this wisdom change is an issue
  • we have corndogs today, what can I give you young man
  • I’ll have the tuna please with a side of angst with the whine of the day
  • later spewing the words fed silently, not education,
  • not even knowledge, no involvement, no expenditure of
  • prepaid energy
  • don’t speak just let them shit it in your head
  • puking the pabulum facts
  • (a generation) numb to the pain in the air
  • puppet master with his arm crammed up the ass of the great decider sending your
  • neighbors mothers sons and daughters to their deaths…and his lips don’t move!
  • daddy stands by aimlessly watching the whole thing go to hell
  • mom fixing hot dogs for bigchiefswhobringsusoil
  • drop by the roadside 10,000 miles away too far to worry
  • too far to care
  • daddy din’t pay for me to hear him talk
  • daddy pays for grog and fog
  • (a generation) afraid to do
  • we marched in the streets to bring you this
  • what did we do wrong when did we stop
  • walk toward the light feel the warmth find yourself
  • wash after counting it’s so filthy daddy din’t pay for this
  • held the union black and white
  • while Bobby bled, saw Martin plead what a happened to make it stop
  • I’ll have the angst with ketchup
  • please ignore the screams of women being raped it’s over there
  • daddy din’t pay for this
  • entire tribes filled with drama open head puke in thought
  • birds without wings babes without voices
  • teach your children well why did it go to hell the plan was great
  • we touched each other fondled green and
  • walked the way most traveled sorry to make you think
  • newspeak turned sour in the craw of mothers
  • (a generation) lost in space dancing in place no melodies
  • no pain no value
  • daddy paid for this
  • only three years left to fix the plan speak the words and bang the pan
  • hope they listen ignore the Christ hanging out after all it’s
  • not Sunday yet
  • if you don’t think that way anymore why do you keep the words
  • daddy pays for me to go on Sundays makes it all okay
  • ignore the screams the blood the drowning in air without water
  • no Facebook no peers
  • fake groups yelling at each other over invisible air about beer and a generation
  • stumbling to the light three left to scream and
  • still silence falls
  • why do we kill to prove that killing was wrong
  • punish for punishing terrorize their babies for our fears
  • since we crawled from the ooze we have learned to destroy
  • how many dead before the lips move
  • (a generation) cries of vegans to stop the killing but
  • the empty mother’s arms aren’t the same
  • protect the fuzzy animals and all their ice
  • annihilate the babies born different than you
  • what difference
  • if Allah had his own cross
  • it would be alright
  • (a generation) lost to war
  • the right thing to do make them just like you
  • why do we reap hate
  • can I have fries and grilled cheese with that bitching
  • here’s my card forget the change
  • I know it’s too hard
  • if we take all the corn from our tables and put it in our tanks we can live better
  • on what
  • sacrifice our young for our trips to the gym to burn off the beer we spent change on
  • they don’t take the card
  • (a generation) regurgitates its bowels to play
  • where are the melodies
  • when it gets dark we sing
  • I am stumbling over my feet in the dark but
  • where are the songs where are the words
  • (a generation) gone silent too few feathers
  • my daddy din’t pay for that
  • angst and drama with a side of ho’s for respect
  • what don’t you get
  • forget babies…forget your cares…Cambodia
  • the vacation of a lifetime
  • forgotten and repeating
  • counseling on hand to help you learn to deal with the events of the past three hours
  • don’t forget the ROTC picnic next Tuesday outside the student union your daddy paid
  • for help support the few the proud as we strive to bomb babies better
  • (a generation) that sees me historic
  • I paid for this myself
  • I have heard you all each day I am old not deaf
  • silently sat there while you moaned I have heard your faces
  • your turn now
  • listen
  • teach your children well their parent’s hell will slowly go by
  • it didn’t work
  • reality:
  • our fathers did pay –
  • my father paid
  • I was willing to go to Canada to make it stop gave up my life
  • my own way
  • the priest fumbling in his own blackness
  • there are more things in heaven and in earth, Horatio
  • unable to offer relief
  • (a generation) without beliefy
  • we wrote some songs
  • reality:
  • we linked arms in the streets and took the blows
  • the pain makes me puke unspoken affection on deaf faces lost in nothing
  • I’m sorry I let you down

Jonathan Demske

SUNY Plattsburgh, Batavia NY

  • without looking
  • drove all this way
  • more than I had ever driven
  • planning to
  • surprise you

  • got there twenty minutes
  • early
  • (and I am always late!)

  • it didn't matter.

  • the room was dark
  • and empty
  • the building was
  • dark and empty
  • the parking lot was
  • dimly lit
  • and
  • empty
  • and cold.
  • I didn't curse or even speak a tear.
  • a frown yes.

  • as you might hear but not
  • listen I
  • returned to my car
  • without looking.
  • got in.

  • I put on my seatbelt
  • for no reason.

  • parked
  • sitting there in the
  • dark empty
  • I don't know now.

  • surprise.