“River of Words”Art and Poetry Contest

Winners of 2009

Big Mothby Ariel Q. Moran, 6th grade Rochester Middle School; Teacher: Leslie Hill 1st Place Category II WA State  

Through this contest you are encouraged to learn new ways to explore your backyard, schoolyard, neighborhood, parks, watershed and other wild places.

Then express what you’ve learned, felt and observed through words and images.”

Students in kindergarten through grade twelve are invited to enter the poetry and art contest.

The deadline for submitting entries to the international contest is December 1.

About 100 poems and art work from both U.S. and international entries are selected as finalists each year. All

winners receive ribbons, books and/or art supplies, t-shirts and other prizes.

Eight Grand Prize winners —four in poetry and four in art, in four different age categories—

are chosen from the US entries. Category I — Kindergarten-Grade 2

Category II — Grades 3-6Category III — Grades 7-9

Category IV — Grades 10-12

Winners for the International Contest are announced each April at a gala event in San Francisco, California.

The Grand Prize and International winners win an all-expense paid trip to Washington, DC to attend the ROW Award Ceremony at The Library of Congress.

For entry forms and a complete listing of contest rules and guidelines, visit the “River of Words” Web site at: riverofwords.org/contest.html and/or tnl.esd113.org

Washington state entries in the

International ROW contest are returned to the ESD 113/Chehalis Basin Education Consortium and are entered in a regional contest, “Words and Images from the Watershed: Washington’s River of Words”.

2009 International ROW Poetry

Winners

Unseen SecretsI hide my secrets in the core of a brick

and on the surface of a star.

I tell my secrets to the unseen spirits around me

and the light rays from the sun.

Secrets live where man cannot go,in the farthest part of space

and inside a velvet mite.

Quinn H. Whitlow, age 7Category I (K-2nd Grade) 2009 Grand Prize WinnerSt. Louis Park, MinnesotaHomeschoolTeacher: Lisa Burger

Noah Jordan, age 9Monkey's Raincoat Prize Winner (Honoring a Short Poem in the Tradition of the Japanese Haiku)Alna, MaineCenter for Teaching & Learning (Edgecomb)Teacher: Jill Cotta

Reflection

Yesterday,I found a person just like

mein the frozen pond.

Grace Fitzpatrick, age 13Anacostia Watershed Prize Winner (Honoring a Washington, DC Area Student)Washington, DCSt. Peter's Interparish SchoolTeacher: Sandra Pierce

Anacostia Shakespearean

Oh dear and lovely river of my dreamsI watch you sway and sing the world to sleepI watch my childhood playing with the fishI remember the crystals on the wavesThe wildflowers that I picked in bouquetsYou moan, but none can hear your quiet cryYou flowed to town from gentle hills aboveYou twist and turn, you slow to quench a thirst.In winter I see tiny snowflakes fallWe fail to help you now and in the pastWe fail, but we stand to try once again.Some say that only god can make a treeBut rivers can be saved by kids like me.

Maddie RoachAge 11

With the Flow

Our wonders, ponders, calculations, misunderstandingsAll of our thoughts converge and collideExplode and expandFalling, tumbling, spinning floating,Ending and being bornthoughts flow down the river of lifeand into the watershed

Shadow Across The MoonMoon,            shining on the lakegleaming under the headlights of the rusty Chevytruck            clamoring down the highway.                        The lake ripples.The rock eroding down the mountain surrenders.            Pines circle,                        water depends.Another world.                        Another life.                                    A wolf steps into the opengiving itself to the shadow across the moon.

Arianna LaChance, age 12Shasta Bioregion Prize Winner (Honoring a San Francisco Bay Area Student)San Anselmo, CaliforniaGreenwood School (Mill Valley)Teacher: Devika Brandt

Noah JordanAge 7

Bird

Bird high upI climb to the skyI soar over a woods and forestsI sing in the high hidden leaves of tall treesI fly south when the white flakes touch my feathersI am a bird

ReflectionYesterday,I found a person just like mein the frozen pond.

Noah Jordan, age 9Monkey's Raincoat Prize Winner (Honoring a Short Poem in the Tradition of the Japanese Haiku)Alna, MaineCenter for Teaching & Learning (Edgecomb)Teacher: Jill Cotta

Some of the 2009 Winning

International ROW Art Entries

Swan2009 International Grand Prize Winner

Atalanta Shi, Age 13Burnaby, BC, Canada

Submitted Independently

KilldearCategory I (K-2nd Grade) 2009 Grand Prize Winner

Jake Barrios, Age 7Watsonville, California

Watsonville Charter School for the ArtsTeachers: Linda Cover & Allegra Bortin

The Brown Bear in the Deep CaveCategory II (Grades 3-6) 2009 Grand Prize Winner Erik Raul Oliva, Age 9Chico, CaliforniaChico Country Day SchoolTeacher: Kari Zigan

Night FlowerCategory III (Grades 7-9) 2009 Grand Prize Winner Scott Styslinger, Age 14Birmingham, AlabamaThe Altamont SchoolTeacher: Marygray Hunter

Remembered WaterCategory IV (Grades 10-12) 2009 Grand Prize Winner Eunsil Choi, Age 17Lawrenceville, GeorgiaParkview High School (Lilburn)Teacher: Judy Nollner

Winning Art from our 2009 WA State

ROW Contest

KingfisherAriel Moran, 6th GradeRochester Middle SchoolTeacher: Leslie Hill1st Place Category II Chehalis 

Night LeaperErick Andrews, 7th grade Lakeside Middle SchoolTeacher: Susie Mortensen1st Place Category III WA State 

Summertime SpiderWyatt Nelson, 7th Grade Rochester Middle SchoolTeacher: Patricia MottHonorable Mention Category III Chehalis 

Swimming UpstreamErick Andrews, 7th gradeLakeside Middle School; Teacher: Susie MortensenHonorable Mention Category III WA State 

Winning Poetry from our 2009 WA

State ROW Contest

The Forest When I was youngI climbed the treesand watched them bendand touch the ground When I was older,I would walk the paththat many had usedand seenthrough the dappled sunlight Now I watch from the edgein a cabin by a wood And some timeI may guardthose who wanderand playin the trees. 

Bryn Benson, 6th gradeWashington Middle School1st Place Category II WA State 

Comfort

 I feel comfort throughout my forest

where the water rumbles and glides,where red leaves dance and spiral downward,

and where the wind sings to the trees 

I feel comfort when I gaze at animals lurking,or when I find their hidden tracks.

I stare in wonder at the victorious raccoonsas they proudly boast over their catch of fish.

 I feel comfort as I walk along the paths of mud

and feel the Earth's rocks and stones.As I pluck the watery stems of flowersor as I feel the gushy moss on trees.

 I feel comfort in My forest.

For it's My home and My place. 

 

Jordan Sherfey, 6th GradeChehalis Middle School

Teacher: David DeitzIst Place Category II Chehalis

October Sometimes when we are sleeping,October slips into town;She tints leaves red and orange,Then paints them golden brown.Each bright leaf starts dancing,In a crisp, painted gown;But when October kisses them,They laugh and tumble down. 

Tori Scherer, 7th Grade Rochester Middle SchoolTeacher: Patricia Mott1st Place Category III WA State  

The Moon 

Hiding behind clouds,Shining bright and glowing,

Waits for the next night.

 Jennifer Holmes, 8th Grade Rochester Middle SchoolTeacher: Martin Woodruff

1st Place Category III Chehalis 

Darkness Assaulted 

Just beyond the electric glow of the window,above the hapless darkness,

Night spits stars across the sky,and some drip down from above,

gleaming globules. 

Far away,where there is no window,

no electric glow,Night doesn't spit stars;

he throws them,streaks them,

pours them in silver rivulets,liquid fire.

 Kyrie Benson, 10th Grade

Olympia High School1st Place Category IV WA State

 

All WA State ROW entrants will receive certificates of appreciation.

Winners will receive art supplies, books and other prizes.

ROW winners will also be recognized in late April in a special ceremony at the WA State Dept. of Ecology

headquarters in Lacey and winning entries will be featured in ROW publications.

For more information on ESD 113’s Chehalis Basin Education Consortium, and the regional “Words and

Images from the Watershed: Washington’s River of Words” Program, please visit our website at:

http://tnl.esd113.org