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Launched by former Georgia Poet Laureate Judson Mitchum in 2014 in collaboration with the Georgia Council for the Arts, the Georgia Poet Laureates Prize is an annual program designed to encourage the work of teenage writers. It’s open to all college students in grades 9 to 12. Learn extra about its launch right here and meet the 2024 winners and finalists, chosen by State Poet Laureate Chelsea Rathburn.
winner
“pennies”
By Grayson Jones
My mother picks up pennies within the car parking zone.
“Indicators from the universe,” he says.
And we discuss destiny.
(My mom mentioned she was by no means fortunate
However I urge to vary
As a result of relating to choosing up pennies within the car parking zone
(Fortunately nobody survives.)
Music performs as we watch the sundown
Candy as cherry wine
And as heavy as my eyelids
Off like a toddler.
will you are taking me to mattress
Trigger in my thoughts,
I’m not but eighteen.
We discuss faith and simply as shortly transfer on to Taylor,
And if God exists
He made at the present time for us:
paved the best way with items of copper,
Coke broke the ice machine,
All the celebrities nonetheless level although
Shore in direction of dwelling.
I’m a giant lady now.
I do not inform folks, even when it is a bit of a shock.
And I do know I am pushing my luck
Once I ask you to drive me in all places,
However for those who give me yet another yr,
i can be a giant lady
I swear
Grayson Jones He’s a senior at Thomas County Central Excessive College and an alumnus of the sixtieth Governor’s Honors Program in Communicative Arts. He loves Vincent van Gogh, singing in his faculty choir, and his poetry pocket book that he carries in all places. He wish to thank his lecturers and household for all their help, to his associates, his first, second, third, fourth, and so forth studying drafts of his poems, the cherry ice machine for all the time working, and all of the pennies he raised that obtained him right here. took away
Finalists (alphabetical by creator’s final identify)
“Stomping Grounds”
By Muriel Chan
I used to be on our outdated stomping grounds yesterday.
No, I did not discover the names
Dinosaur footprints on the partitions of the museum.
I used to be too busy to forged a look at you,
Only a few steps behind me.
I used to be busy vaulting from footprint to footprint,
Stretching my little legs to place 1, 2, 3 steps between us.
I all the time win the race.
No, I did not discover the names
Dinosaur footprints on the partitions of the museum.
I used to be too busy pestering you with dumb questions
Stroll together with your head down on the cellphone.
I’m too outdated for such anticsYou instructed me.
I unfold my arms like a pterodactyl and practiced ballerina leaps.
I used to be at our outdated stomping floor yesterday,
I appeared again, hoping you’d stroll there with our dad and mom,
An disagreeable rebuke has been slapped in your face.
However you were not
So that you did not hear me
The smiling kids following in our footsteps reminded us of how a lot.
you have by no means seen
How disappointment despatched a tsunami that burst by my eyes and flooded my senses
As a result of I mourn all of the instances we selected to stroll away from one another.
Now I am shocked by all of the locations we have fought for-
1000, 2000, 3000, steps between us.
I am right here on our outdated stomping grounds.
Noting the names
Dinosaur footprints on the partitions of the museum
As a result of I’ve nowhere else to go.
Muriel Chan A freshman at McIntosh Excessive College in Peachtree Metropolis. He’s a founding father of his faculty’s scholar literary society chapter and competes for his faculty’s speech and debate group. Her different works have appeared in her faculty’s literary journal, mischief. She loves every little thing in regards to the music business and performs violin in her faculty and neighborhood youth orchestra. She performs piano and performs at nursing houses on weekends. When he isn’t listening to Laufey’s discography time and again, studying homicide mysteries or binging Derry Ladies, yow will discover him taking lengthy walks together with his dad and mom and two older sisters. He thanked his household and English instructor for his or her motivation and fixed help.
“Chat for Rubbish Collectors”
Written by Little Ganesh
As dexterous as a advantageous lumberjack,
Inexperienced Rage Males
Forest of Deserted Wastes
With fell an ax swoop.
This sq. within the alley
and Baron of Cul-de-Sacs,
This curbside collector is wealthy and helpless
Ecliptic astronomers themselves, are students of parallax
And perspective: A person’s priceless trash for cash
One other individual’s invoice in a rush.
Take a look at all of the trashman!
These knights in shining work garments, disciples of this routine,
This secret enemy of rats
And raccoons, this ferryman of mildew
and unseen smells,
Dutifully preserve, with a bleeding coronary heart by the offensive glass gap
America’s conscience is evident.
Pickup day is judgment day, in spite of everything—the contents of the bin
shall be assessed, and the Council of Collectors shall convene,
Desperately bargaining with Mom Earth as a diplomat
Air pollution suffocation ought to be decreased.
Lest we neglect the mighty males in inexperienced!
What do I wish to be after I develop up? My kindergarten instructor insisted
That I forsake this kid’s need, this hateful need:
“Lack of rubbish enterprise
Status – you’d make a superb accountant.” And so I lie by my tooth, like a ventriloquist.
could also be; By some means I establish equally with the doll’s plight.
Even when the stage lights are turned off, the viewers continues to chatter.
And backstage I pile up the garments,
I’m unable to seek out what I’m on the lookout for. Maybe it has been discarded by traditionalists.
Should the present go on? College of unseen fish
A lick that cleans the hapless leatherback’s soiled, moss-covered shell.
Who thanks the green-clad mutualists?
This poem has a particular format. See the unique format right here.
Just a little Ganesha, 16, is a sophomore at Westminster College in Atlanta. Little is obsessed with poetry, arithmetic, physics, social science and historical past. She has been lucky sufficient to be honored with a number of regional key and nationwide medals as a part of the annual Scholastic Artwork and Writing Awards (for poetry, journalism, brief tales and demanding essays) and presently serves on the editorial employees of each her faculty newspapers. and for a student-run poetry and fiction journal targeted on the revision course of. He not too long ago offered on the Worldwide Convention on AI Ethics, successful the “Greatest Paper” award. Exterior of writing, Little is an avid quiz bowl participant and performs the cello as a proud member of the Westminster Chamber and Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestras. He likes to attempt new meals and spend time with associates. Little likes to swim, run and play desk tennis in his spare time; His pursuits embrace System One racing, indie rock music (The Strokes and Arctic Monkeys), and the disappointingly-mediocre Chicago Bulls.
“poison ivy”
By Quinn Kelsey
I nearly stepped on poison ivy
Since you wished to chop
close to the bench
within the cemetery
We sat in the identical one about six months in the past
you mentioned “pull up your socks”
So I did and I fell pigeon first
in our love
Love is meant to unfold like wildfire,
stream by veins
Blood pumping and physique warmth,
Sparks are flying.
Love would not cease as soon as it begins.
It is not alleged to be “I like you.”
Then per week later,
“What occurred to our love?”
Love is meant to be sharp, the scent of wildflowers
and honeydew melon.
I do not even like honeydew melon.
However you scent like wild berries and lip balm.
late evening motion pictures and Italian meals,
Lacking an hour of kissing. Rewind and do it once more.
After “I like you”.
Our love has grow to be an overripe fruit,
Our love spreads like poison ivy
Itching and fixed
Purple rash and bubble tub to alleviate ache.
The leaves hit my ft
Very softly, very intently
And so they grow to be dry weeks after your contact.
It has been two months.
Poison ivy would not final that lengthy.
This poem has a particular format. See the unique format right here.
Quinn Kelsey A senior at Decatur Excessive College. Their poems have been revealed in a number of publications together with The nation of poetry And Stay Poets of New Jersey, and has been acknowledged twice by the Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards. She can also be in her third yr of artistic writing and has labored passionately on her faculty’s literary journal yearly. Once they’re not busy writing, Quinn will be discovered listening to music, crafting or making garments, and spending high quality time with family and friends. Quinn is honored to obtain this award and wish to thank her household, associates, and particularly her English and Artistic Writing instructor, who instilled her love for writing these previous 4 years. Quinn will proceed learning poetry, pictures and trend at school subsequent yr.
“Pupil’s allow“
By Autumn Elizabeth Martin
I despise cherry lips
and the hole between the thighs.
The hated rubber mildew I am on the lookout for
Plastic, burns my pores and skin
Within the hearth of confusion and submission
Yesterday morning I screamed on the sky.
Kicked over the trash can.
However I bit my lip between my tooth.
And my hole
saved closing.
To the deformed entity within the car reflection:
You have not met the brand new me but.
Backward I drive,
Purple gentle and I hear
Female Rage is my identify
From underneath the lip liner
It burns like acid on my sprint.
My engine is roaring.
Shiny cross sticker on the again
The subsequent automobile is quietly burning—
Good to know they’re passing.
I’m not a catalyst.
New to the tune of the moon
I have not rejected the solar but
Together with his nation shout.
within the lightning
Tick marks in my abdomen
1:00 and a pair of:00 am, I sing
The chicken that saved flying,
So totally different from me.
Alan Jackson was on the radio, with everybody
i’ll And glorify the promise. once they die
Hallelujah bye and bye, they shall fly
Within the distance I’ll take a look at the pool
My flesh, suppose what has been constructed.
And shout to the sky.
Autumn Elizabeth Martin A senior at Carrollton Excessive College, enjoys writing, drawing and spending time together with her seven cats. She plans to attend Emory College within the fall and main in psychology. He’s his household and his IB literature instructor. Marsha wish to thank French for serving to her achieve confidence in writing! She is honored and impressed by this chance and may’t wait to proceed writing creatively and utilizing her voice to help it.
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