Young poets awarded at annual township ceremony

BY COLLEEN LUTOLF
Staff Writer

The Doctors Fix You I am sad I am mad We can fix it May we fix it? Can you look at me? Can you fix me? Alec Hehir, 6 Primary Learning Center Second Place Poet Anne Waldman once said it is every poet's obligation to "make the world safe for poetry."

Brick Township seems to be doing its part.

Over 530 of Brick's students submitted poems to the Brick Township Recreation Department's seventh annual Student Poetry Competition, a program founded and fostered by local poet, actor and environmentalist Robert Anstett.

The competition's 21 winners were recently awarded at a small ceremony at the Brick Township Cultural Arts Center June 14.

Winners' poems are published in "New Voices Inside," a poetry chapbook compiled by The Poets' Circle, whose members judge the contest. The publication will be distributed for free at township events.

This year's judges were local poet Gail Bigham, Brick Memorial High School English teacher Barbara Godbold and text book writer Patricia Shaw.

Winners receive a certificate of recognition, a trophy and a coupon for a free large pizza, donated by Pudgy's Restaurant on Brick Boulevard.

Purple Purple is a plum, a happy feeling. When I get mad I look at my purple ceiling. A sunset a paintbrush a notebook purple is the smell of a violet blooming. Brandon VanBerkle, 6 Primary Learning Center First Place High school division winners are:

First place, Ashia Hulsenbeck and Demi Dooros, second place, Monique Guz and Christina Harzer, and third place, Kristin Jonkoski and Jamie Lee Wasco, all students of Brick Memorial High School.

Middle school division winners are:

First place, Caroline Foz (St. Dominic School) and Alyssa Miller (Lake Riviera Middle School); second place, Victoria Kryla (St. Dominic School) and Brigette Santora (Lake Riviera Middle School), and third place, Shannon Ells and Summer Socha (both St. Dominic School), and Nicholas Raps (Lake Riviera Middle School).

Elementary division winners are:

First place, Kristin Laubauskas (Veterans Memorial Elementary School) and Colleen Magley (St. Dominic School), second place, Frank Nicosi (Veterans Memorial Elementary School) and third place, Dana Van De Vaarst (Emma Havens Young) and Loammi Cruz (Midstreams School). Primary Learning Center winners are: first place, Brandon Van Berkle, second place Erin White, and Alec Hehir and third place, Frank Fanelli.

Following is a sample of the poetry contest winners' winning poems:

Perspective

An artist gazes at a black piece of paper

and sees the world.

You see nothingness.

The artist looks at a piano

and he is screaming eighty-eight

different ways.

You grab for earplugs.

The artist sees a flower petal

and he is touching the soft velvet to his cheek.

You are sneezing.

An artist sees a forest

and is staring at nature at its finest.

You think how it would make

for an excellent shopping center.

Life should not be that way.

Why sometimes, are the simple things

the hardest to understand?

Jamie Lee Wasco

Brick Township Memorial High School

Third Place

The Hug Rug

I love to hug

on the rug!

Do you, Mrs. Lee?

Frank Fanelli, 6

Primary Learning Center

Third Place