General News: Award-Winning Poems 2013
Cornwall Public Library Timothy Mumford Memorial Poetry Competition
2013 Winning Poems
Temptation
Why did curiosity kill that cat?
Temptation.
Dangerous, I know I shouldn’t
Yet I still reach out to touch.
It’s a great risk, playing with your own feelings
You don’t even realize you’re doing it, and even when you do
You don’t care.
“What If” is too strong a factor.
It’s no good for me, I know it,
Yet I still go back for more
Not sure what to expect,
Not sure what I’ll endure.
It couldn’t be good for me,
Everything is too good to be true nowadays.
A lesson you hear and experience,
But never learn from.
For its force is too great,
Your feelings and wondering get the best of your common sense,
Trudging you deeper into the blinding dark.
Deeper into trouble.
Digging your own grave.
Why does everything that is so bad for you,
Look, feel, seem
So deceivingly wonderful?
That is the merciless majestic ways of temptation.
All the knowing that it’s wrong . . .
May just be the best and worst part about it.
Marlena Marzigliano
Age 16
Cornwall Central High School
Spring is Near
The rain falls down
and the birds fly up
and I stay on the ground.
I still don’t know where I want to go.
But I hear the rain fall
and I hear the birds sing
I think they are telling me
Spring is near.
Molly Rose Finn
Age 6
Cornwall-on-Hudson Elementary
Madness
Mad has took over me.
I’m an ice queen.
Nothing can stop me
From ruining everything.
I throw this,
Then that!
I go to my room,
I destroy it!
I find my favorite book.
I open it, prepared to rip out the pages!
Instead I look at the words,
And start reading.
My heart is filled with wonder.
My eyes, stuck on a page.
Thoughts are swirling around in my head.
I’m in a whole different world.
A dragon is invading our village!
I grab a bow and arrow,
Aim for the dragon’s eye.
Kathryn Gagnon
Age 9
Lee Road Elementary School
Deforestation
How beautiful is the
weeping willow
When her dress of green vines doth billow,
When she dances with the playful breeze,
Twirling gently, at her ease.
An acrid stench fills the air;
All those who scent it despair —
Fleeing animals run amok —
Sighted in the distance, a truck!
The willow dances, unaware,
Thinking the rest of the day fair.
But trees crashing to the ground,
Flames leaping all around
Her daydreams dashed,
Away she flashed —
At least she would if she could —
But roots bind her, chains of wood,
Tying her evermore to her spot.
A way to escape the fire she sought,
But her fate, it seemed,
Was to die, she deemed.
To the sky she pleaded and pines,
Hoping some divine god would find
She was too young to die, too soon!
Her roving eye fell on the moon.
As the sparks finally reached her, she said
“Please protect those like me ahead.”
Elizabeth Anne Klosky
Age 13
Home Schooled
Ode to Night
Clear and quiet,
cool and calm.
No lights,
no sight,
only darkness.
Each time on
Adventure.
Wandering
aimlessly.
No reasoning
and endless
possibilities.
Like a veil,
hiding the world
from the sun.
More than just
a planet
revolving; it
creeps through
windows, lies
across furniture.
And reflects on
the sky, marred
by the watching
stars and moon.
But the Night
is protective,
Hiding our shame
and secrets
from prying eyes.
Owen McTigue
Age 16
Cornwall Central High School
Without Stars
If it were not for the sun,
The moon would not shine.
If not for the stars,
The sun would not shine.
Or dreams fly or hopes thrive,
Or the contented laugh,
Or the brokenhearted cry.
For dreamers nothing to reach,
For mourners of the dead, nothing to seek,
For lovers nothing to cross,
For those at night without a guide,
Hopelessly lost.
If not for the stars, the world would be blind,
No light by day, no guidance by night,
No man in the moon, or belt of Orion,
Or Dipper, Big or Little, scooping up diamonds.
No life to be lived, no love to be loved,
No voice to be hears, no song to be sung.
No laugh to be laughed, no tear to be shed,
No visions envisioned, no world to be led.
Christine Tricomi
Age 17
Cornwall Central High School
When
Our hearts hold nothing,
Our heads, corruption,
Our lives lived from
One cut to the next.
Our bruises forsake us
While our eyes, they don’t take us
Too long to see
What we want to.
Your lips, they lead me,
While your hips, they need me
But what do you want
Of my soul?
Her love
And my blood
They stain your hands
Like a sign that screams, It’s not me
The truth or all lies?
It’s like casting dice
My life always left to chance
And what to say next?
Never know, always guess.
Because there is no right way
To end a poem
That is about pain.
Laurel Schuster
Age 17
Cornwall Central High School
How to Write a Poem
Step one, research
“how to write a poem.”
Step two, read tips, suggestions, rules.
Step three, become overwhelmed
trying to follow all the rules
Step four, say “screw it.”
Step five, forget the “rules”, the guidelines.
Let your mind run free and
just write.
Write word after word until
it seems right.
It can rhyme or tell a story,
it could be like Shakespeare
or it could not.
Write what feels right,
What seems good,
write what comes to mind
in any style you choose.
Convey a thought or a feeling.
Tell us something, anything.
Be angry.
Be happy.
Be whatever you
want.
Ignore these words too
for they seem like more rules.
Step six, above else,
just write.
Elizabeth Pirard
Age 18
Cornwall Central High School
Cornwall Public Library would
like to thank the 113 poets who
contributed 160 original poems to the 2013 poetry competition.
The judges assessed each poem with no knowledge of who the
poet was, and had very tough
decisions to make due to the #
of entries in most categories.
Judges:
John Kelly
Sally Ryan
Sharon Thomson
THANK YOU to the teachers and
principals of our community’s schools who continue to support
this event year after year.
It’s with your help that the
continued success of the
Timothy Mumford Memorial Poetry Competition is made possible.
THANK YOU, Friends of
Cornwall Library, for sponsoring
this annual event and providing
our delicious refreshments.
CORNWALL PUBLIC LIBRARY
395 Hudson Street, Cornwall NY 12518
845-534-8282 www.cornwallpubliclibrary.org
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