Entrance Categories: |
Category A – Individual poem grades 3-4
Philip Oreste
The Road to My Baseball Career
I hold my breath and wait for the ball to be caught.
Butterflies around in my stomach.
The ball drops to the ground, I breathe out as I run.
I run in Babe Ruth’s footsteps
Hitting just like him, home run after home run.
He is the baseball player I will be!
The road is long and haard
It is filled with mud, sweat and tears
I will meet its challenges.
It call to me
I answer by doing my best
It is what I must do!
I will walk the green turf on the road toward my future
I will hope the sweet small of victory will one day be mine
This is my path, This is my calling, This is my dream
This Is My Road!!!
Category B – Individual poem grades 5-6
Hannah Lu
Song Of The Open Road
The bold wide road stretches miles and miles across earth leading us to our dreams,
For I am a doctor knowledgeable and proper. I save many lives and make the world better.
For I am a teacher lively and happy. The future’s destiny is in my hands to prepare for the next generation.
For I am an architect brave and kind. My hammers play a lovely tune as I build houses for people.
For I am a mailman short and stout. I bring letters form loved ones and friends.
Reading them makes people feel so close to them.
Touchdown! I am a football player fast and fearless. I bring entertainment to the people and make their days happy.
For I am a librarian nice and informative. I give you access to my books to become smarter.
For I am a newspaper reporter exciting and energetic. I keep people in touch with the outside world.
For I am a marine biologist bright and a good swimmer. I save marine life so our animals will not be extinct some day.
For I serve in the army, faithful and self-less. I fight for my countries rights until we succeed and go home happily as winners.
For I am an artist creative and artistic as I smoothly swipe my
Paint brush smoothly against my paper, finishing the last stroke.
Do any of your dreams match any of the above? If yes, you must thank the open road.
Category C- Individual poem grades 7-8
Phaedra Damianos Conroy
The Rebirth of an Empty Mind
It’s blank…it’s blank!
There’s no color, there not thought.
This paper has no emotion, this canvas has no value.
I sit staring
Searching, yet finding nothing!
It bothers me, it frustrated me, my mind is ready to burst!
But it doesn’t….
It’s quiet, just this blank composition and I.
Then it begins again,
The torture once tamed is now overcoming me.
My heart is pounding, I’m trembling.
The walls are closing in! I can’t take it anymore!
This manuscript mocks me, it provokes me.
I try to come up with something, but nothing occurs.
The emptiness is everlasting.
I lay back in my chair hopeless,
As if I were a mouse finally trapped in a corner by the cat,
Waiting for death! I hold my breath waiting
But nothing happens…
I’m perfectly unscathed. I breath out in relief.
No heavens have crashed upon me. I couldn’t find a single scratch on my skin
Everything is fine… But I feel something.
I don’t understand this bizarreness I’m feeling.
It doesn’t throb, it doesn’t sting, and it’s not at all an agony or an ache.
It’s beautiful, it’s astonishing,
Like a sun set, it’s color blending so elegant, or a cool sea breeze, freshening my face.
Then it comes to me, my mind is reborn.
The path to creation has opened.
Thoughts and ideas pour into my head.
Everything comes to ease.
I pick up my brush and all things known as creation cover the empty tablet.
Color, personality, dreams, and emotion are all shown in exquisite design.
After it’s complete the results is thrilling.
Happiness and satisfaction find their way to my soul.
The emptiness inside had drifted away and now
I stand a master piece full of greatness and perfection.
Category D – Individual poem grades 9-10
Courtney Taylor
Night Drive
On a journey through the night,
One sojourn finished, another new
There lies a empty span of road
An abyss of time, an unfinished song;
In the dark, our way is woven.
Lives flash and flicker in the background
Piercing the scene and roaring past
A crescendo in the middle of a half-written piece
Some lifts, some booms
Dragged off on odysseys of their own.
The night drives are hardly loved
In shadowed highways, only the distance is felt
And only the road is seen, the daunting expanse of life itself.
The song of the road lends itself to melancholy.
The gaseous scent and the loneliness
A traveling blur outside the cities and homes
But on the road, we are alive.
When the roads are empty, you can drive into the sky.
The song of the road is a song of sadness
But those who listen longest hear the underlying hymn.
Category E – Individual poem grades 11-12
Kyle Fitzsimmons
The Road I see is lined with trees
Then diverges into the open seas
I am on a road where I can travel all around
But first I must get through my academic life safe and sound
How will I choose to go about?
Well I haven’t decided that exact route
All I know is one small principle
That I shall conquer my road and be invincible
I plan to prove my peers and superiors wrong
And show them my road is successful and strong
Like all roads mine will have a different obstacle or turn
But obstacles are meant to be a life lessons to learn
So far I have not let anything come in my way
To bring to where I am today
Far from whence I came
But my future will not be the same
I will travel through it with confidence and pride
And never let strength leave my side
The future is coming it’s time to choose
The exact road that I decide to use
Get up, be there, be alert, be ready
Today I travel on this road steady
Category L – Individual Anthology
Jennifer Biancaniello
The Road Chosen For Me
Life, a mysterious God of unequaled power
Who’s fist clenches my throat and squeezes ‘till I whimper.
Where is justice?…
I give in.
I have no power, no control, no right,
Continuation is the only road left to take.
Destiny is Life’s forever best friend,
Hand-in-hand they bully me
Like a child in the playground.
Try, attempt to break their chains?
Impossible…
Why?
Everything has purpose.
All actions and decisions
Led me to a place unknown.
Life’s will, Destiny’s shove have broken me,
Transformed me,
Repaired me.
Perhaps I had no power… but everything is good.
Greatness, Happiness, Love may become my friends.
Thank you Life.
Thank you Destiny.
I started on your road unwillingly,
However, I stayed for myself.