Mother, I'm an award winning poet!

I got a call last Tuesday from the Kern Valley Library. Their librarian, my dear friend Adriane Holguin, called to tell me that my poem had won our local poetry contest.

My writing has never won anything before! I posted about the contest at the beginning of April, because I was unsure about even submitting a poem this year. Last year, they weren't impressed with my poem one single bit, but I decided to try again with a much more conservative piece, since the judges seemed to like that from the winners last year.

There were fewer participants this year- only thirteen poems were submitted for my category.

As a prize, I will be published in the Kern Valley Writer's Association annual anthology, and I will get a free copy.

Here is the poem that won. It is a sonnet, and I thought of it one day when I saw some whispy clouds trailing across the sky. It's extremely conservative (possibly boring), and by far it's not my best poem, but I think I learned an important lesson about submitting a writing style that will be popular with the people evaluating it (i.e. publishers, judges).

Morning Song

Like a gift that has yet to be opened,
Ribbons trail against the sky.
Like a paper that covers a package,
Sleep still covers the eyes.

Like a parcel concealing a treasure,
Mountains are shrouding the sun,
Like a present that soon will be given,
A new day has almost begun.

All of creation is waiting,
Waiting for this brand new morn,
When anything is possible,
And new things can be born.

Like a gift that’s been bestowed,
The sun bursts forth and this land glows.