On Tuesday, April 25th, seven Waring students won nine awards in the Beverly Public Library's 21st Annual Teen Poetry Contest. Ilaria Bardini, Sarah Bradshaw, Gareth Buhl, Cole Cunningham, Erik Waxdal, Griffin Wells, and Jemma West read their poems aloud in the Sohier Room of the Beverly Public Library and received their final awards. With 627 entries submitted, only 25 finalists were selected. Waring was strongly represented. Congratulations to our winners!
Middle School
Griffin Wells, First Prize for “Bats”
Cole Cunningham, Third Prize for “Middle”
Griffin Wells, Honorable Mention for “Morgantown”
Jemma West, Honorable Mention for “Chocolate”
High School
Ilaria Bardini, Honorable Mention for “For Him”
Sarah Bradshaw, Honorable Mention for “Rain”
Gareth Buhl, Honorable Mention for two poems, “Lost Minutes” and First Sights”
Erik Waxdal, Honorable Mention for “The Crook”
Bats
by Griffin Wells
We looked at bats today.
Some guy with coins and each little star
sleeping and fishing by the lake by his forehead
taught us about them.
He had hand puppets that he was good at talking to
(they had been friends for awhile, I could tell).
And he was supposed to let us try them out but I saw
the fear in his eyes when talking to anyone but his puppets.
Nonetheless, all five of them were seized.
Now it was raining by the lake
and there were too many catfish,
so the stars decided to pack up their apples and rods
and leave.
He glanced at the line of seedlings in little Styrofoam cups.
I decided to talk to him, pointing to one of the bats in his books,
but someone tapped their watch
and it was raining, hard. Droplets the size of my thumb.
He called for his bats,
pocketed them protectively
and left, storming.
A coeducational, independent day school for grades 6-12 in Beverly, Massachusetts
