Administration Office
P.O. Box 119, 7527 Library Drive, Hanover, VA 23069
804-365-6211 (phone), 804-537-6389 (fax),
ask@pamunkeylibrary.org
Pamunkey Regional Library
Poetry Contest Winners for 2008
Kindergarten-2nd grade
Springtime
by: Samantha Anderson
Lois Wickham Jones/Montpelier Branch Library
Spring is coming—
Flowers are blooming,
Birds are chirping,
Frogs are burping.
Spring is here—
Through the window I peer,
I see things far and near.
I fill happier than ever;
I love the weather.
3rd – 5th grade
My Best Friends
by: Tony Holmes
King & Queen Branch Library
My first best friend is Moody Mark,
He plays football with me.
My second best friend is little Andrew,
Who often likes to kick me in the knee.
My third best friend is Rude Reggie,
Who talks a whole lot.
My fourth best friend is Deontre,
Who thinks he’s good when he’s not.
My fifth best friend is Krabby Kristen,
Who wants all the attention.
Well, that’s all of the friends that
I’m going to mention.
Middle School
Spirit Free
by: Tiara Johnson
Goochland Branch Library
Those who claim to recognize beauty,
Label me as ugly,
They don't realize,
That my movements are poetic,
My stride is determined,
My spirit is free,
But I am like a caterpillar,
looking for shelter and protection,
So I am imprisoned in my mind,
Frightful and aghast,
Shrouded in uncertainty,
Drenched in spiritual rain,
So slowly I re emerge,
triumphant and unbeaten,
I have survived,
Victory is within my reach.
High School
The Richest Bunch In Town
by: Annie Slater
Lois Wickham Jones/Montpelier Branch Library
We may be low on nickels and dimes,
but deary we've got no shortage of good times.
Scarce are the rolls of bills,
but sad faces are scarcer still.
We don’t have a safe for our money,
the valuables play in the yard when it’s sunny.
No marble halls have we,
but we do have the most beautiful maple tree.
We don’t have a butler waiting at the door,
but one of the little one will let you in for sure.
We don’t get crammed in fancy places,
rather we enjoy our wide open spaces.
We don’t own silver, but we do have gold,
I’ve got a mason jar full of all the honey it will hold.
We don’t have classes to teach us things,
Why, we learned to sing while dish washing.
We don’t have stock in the market
because for Mama and Daddy,
raising good kids is their first target.
We don’t wonder if prices drop and fall
because on our little farm we've really got it all.
We don’t have to worry about robbers,
because we haven’t anything they’d want to bother.
We don’t keep our love locked away,
we tell it to each other every day.
We aren’t like those poor folks who sit around and frown.
Why should we, after all, we're "the richest bunch in town!"
Adult
Washing Up
by: William A. Palmer
West Point Branch Library
Now that the guests are gone, she stands
before the kitchen sink in stocking feet,
an apron-vested priestess on her holy ground.
Her acolyte, I clear the dining table
of a paten flecked with crumbs,
a chalice sloshing dregs of coffee, cooled.
They join the dirty dishes on the countertop,
a mute, expectant queue, like catechumens
gathered to receive a sacrament.
She plunges each in turn beneath the steaming suds,
her reddened hands a sacrifice
to glided banding delicately limned.
Then from the stainless pool they rise transformed,
a sheen of water sparkling in the light,
our baptized congregation newly shrived.
We offer up the coming calling of our task,
the one who washes, one who dries,
familiar practiced rhythms without words
until the service ends, our vessels purified.
The gurgling water in the drain
intones a blessed canticle of peace.
