2013 Poetry Contest Purpose If you stumble with a trip it’ll have you falling behind If you prefer your dark side it’ll make it harder to shine Hating is like a crime except your heart is doing the time You say you’re young but doing things that you would do in your prime What’s your purpose? If you stand tall and look up then you can reach for the sky If you work hard and never quit I can say at least that you tried Being yourself feels better than being the bad guy Achieve your goals step up and receive your prize What’s your purpose? To live, to die To sing, to dance To walk, to run To fly, to land Educate your mind gain wisdom and knowledge Use your talents and take them to college And do it!!... …On purpose ‐JaMar Gordon Gardener You lower your head, inhaling my scent. A sigh escapes your lips in a slow smile. You run your fingertips along my ridges, igniting a hunger inside me. I want to be with you. I stretch to open, to bare myself to you. That which held me, you free me from with one small snip. My mortality is imminent now, but I don't care. I'll die, wilting in your presence, feeling your lips on my petals and your breath in my center. The sun makes me grow but it is you who makes me happy. It is you who completes me. Without you I am nothing. You are my gardener, and I am your rose. -Charlene Sphon
Valentine Cards drawing hearts of pink and red on a white paper bag seeing all the bags lined‐up against the classroom wall placing one, small Valentine in each bag eagerly emptying my bag’s treasures upon the floor at home examining and re‐examining each and every card recalling sweet, distant childhood memories ‐Valentina Ranaldi‐Adams
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