Poetry Contest Winners 2024

 

Winning Poems:

Untitled by A. Allen, K-2 divison

I belong with my family
I belong in my home
I belong with the bright trees and even a gnome
My family loves me with all of their heart
Even when I sometimes fart

Together by M. Israelite, 3-5 division

Hand in hand, laughs and smiles
Skin dark, white and tan - We have
different styles. We all belong, with
our different ways, so proud and strong,
hanging out for days. I have brown
hair, she has blond - we are different
frogs from one big pond. He has black
skin, I have brown. We'll invite
kids, and won't take a frown. My family
is big, and her family is small,
he is short and she is tall. Excluding
is wrong, and including is the
key. We are all different fish from one
big sea.

Belonging by B. Baird, 3-5 division

Belonging means love, Belonging means
community, Belonging means comfortable,
belonging means opportunity. Belonging
can be happy or belonging can be
sad, belonging can be good and belonging
can be bad. Belonging is a good
thing it makes you feel like you
fit in, feeling like you belong is where
happiness begins. Belonging means you
like the people around you and the
people around you like you, but making
someone else feel like they belong is
an even better thing to do that is called
empathy and is a word that connects
to the word belonging. Belonging feels
great- scratch that, belonging feels amazing!

My Internal Monologue by A Gallagher, 9-12 division

My internal monologue
Knows me better
Than anyone else.
She knows I write poetry
And song lyrics
And short stories.
She knows how I
Destroyed
My-
Self
And how l've been piecing me back together
An anthropologist's journey
To rediscover
Who
I
Am

Discovered in the rubble
A reluctant survivor
Who had seen it all.
I took her in and I nurtured her
And when other people don't see her
I am a shell.

When I'm with all my friends
Loud and honest and queer
I can be myself.
I present myself
And they accept me
But they don't see past the surface.
They don't see
The stories in the shoebox (under my bed)

I belong in that I have a place in the crowd
I smile to dozens of people in the halls
But I need someone to forcibly grab my diary
Read its contents
And discover who I am
To know me in whole
And know that they are loving more than just their fleeting perceptions
That they are loving my internal monologue

I feel a sense of belonging by A. Davies, K-2 division

I feel a sense of
belonging when my friends
listen to me I don't
when they do not listen
so I find a way to be
and stay but the only
time I feel like I belong
is when I play in my
own way and the only
way to be for I is
Just being
ME!!!

Untitled by A. Tredo, 3-5 division

I love my school
I love my friends
I love my community,
to my pool
to my birth place
I belong to every face

Untitled by V. Tredo, 6-8 division

Belonging is a puzzle
Each person does their part for others
Fitting each piece in like blended colors
Making the world a masterpiece for the next generation
So they can make life a better creation
So everyone can fit in solidly
Just like how each puzzle piece belongs