Greenwich Students Win Poetry Contest

Three high school students from Greenwich have been selected as winners of the Greenwich Education Group's (GEG) first poetry contest, which was launched in April in celebration of National Poetry Month.

The first place winner is Jo DeWaal, a Greenwich Academy freshman, for Crescendo.

The panel of judges included Lee Paine, a 26-year Greenwich Time columnist and member of the Greenwich Pen Women; Margrét Ann Thors, Greenwich Education Group writing specialist; and Rawle Deland, English teacher emeritus and former head of Humanities of the Beacon School.

Of the winning entry, Rawle said, “It moved me by virtue of its creative and compelling imagery of the delicate flowers giving way to stone. Its form and content complemented each other.”

The second place winner is Greenwich Academy junior Jordyn Young for What Could Be, and in third place is Brittany Loveless, a Greenwich High School sophomore, for A Difference, A Miss. Additionally, the judges decided to also award an honorable mention to Sheila James, a sophomore attending Convent of the Sacred Heart, for By The Time I Turn 20.

The poetry contest sought emerging high school poets and asked them to express their interpretations of the theme "By the time I turn 20" in an original poem. Many submissions were received from students in Fairfield, Westchester and Putnam Counties and even as far as Memphis, TN.

According to Paine, “every poem had some strong points, the most impressive of which was the depth of emotion and insight expressed. I hope these students keep using poetry as a vehicle for their expression, because by the time they are 20, all of them have the potential to become awesome poets!”

First Place

Crescendo

By Jo DeWaal, Greenwich Academy freshman

She is silent.

A velvet delphinium

reaching to the sky.

She questions.

Struggles with iniquities,

implausible outcomes

for simple things—shelter, hunger, peace.

A guttural murmur becomes a groundswell—rising.

She becomes inspired.

Marching to undo the wrong—

left, right, left—a raucous stomping, unafraid.

No longer complacent, she becomes unstoppable,

unrestrained—a prickly nettle—chrysoprase shell shattered,

heeding a thunderous call.

She seeks justice.

A force, a pegmatite waterfall—

barreling to unleash a roiling from inside.

She is loud.

Second Place

What Could Be

By Jordyn Young, Greenwich Academy junior 

I could be a doctor

I save lives

I find a cure

I heal

You could be my partner

You love me

You support me

You compliment me

We could have children

We will love them

We will teach them

We will raise them

They could take care of us

They are kind

They help others

They are successful

We could have it all

Third Place

A Difference, A Miss

By Brittany Loveless, Greenwich High School sophomore

someone will know my name,

because of how I showed

going out on a limb for them

helped their roots take hold and grow

someone will miss me

our breaths, our tears, our smiles,

the memories won't be lost on me;

the experiences worthwhile

someone will try to change me

to be the way they are,

but we are all a sum of our own moments,

and we all wear different scars

I will probably be lost

and hopefully confused,

I don’t want to be chained to a plan for my life

rather, blindfolded and living with nothing to lose

as long as I make a difference in someone’s life,

by the time I turn twenty,

only time can tell the rest

so long as the years to come are many