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Students' literary talents tested

Features | Tue, 05/26/2009 - 2:08 pm | Read 2602 | Commented 0 | Emailed 9
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A panorama of hills and vineyards provided a bucolic backdrop for the Arts Alliance of Yamhill County when it staged its Paper Garden creative writing awards ceremony.

The setting was Red Ridge Farms, high in the Dundee Hills on Breyman Orchard Road. Owned by vineyardists Ken and Peggy Durant, it is home to a garden center and the Oregon Olive Mill event facility.

The 17th annual edition of the Paper Garden competition couldn’t have been held in a more perfect place to complement the well-composed words of 31 poets and essayists from around the Yamhill Valley who were honored this year.

Started in 1993 by playwright, author and professor Rachael C. Burchard, a graduate of Linfield College, Paper Gardens is open to all county residents. The aim is to encourage and showcase local writing talent.

The contest’s high standards and continued quality has earned it a prestigious place in the local creative community while enhancing the Arts Alliance’s reputation as a key supporter of the arts and arts education.

Bill Siverly, a poet, author and retired creative writing professor, served as judge for this year’s competition. Judging was done on a blind basis, with the writer’s identity unrevealed until afterward.

As she has in years past, well-known McMinnville resident Marilyn Worrix, whose creative craftsmanship in hand book-binding is a high art form in its own right, designed and bound the chapbook containing the award-winning works for 2009.

The following are just a few examples of the winning poems, for which first places were awarded to children, youth and adults in the traditional, free verse and haiku categories.

Traditional Poetry:
First Place - Children’s
Renee Myers, Grade 5
Newby Elementary, McMinnville

The Snowstorm
It was snowing, snowing, snowing,
I was beautiful outside.
It was great to be out walking,
Until you slipped and cried.

On Friday, it was 1 foot,
On Sunday, it was 2.
It was deeper than my ankle,
Since it covered up my shoe.

It was fun to build a snow fort,
Mine went up to my waist.
I liked throwing all my snowballs,
(The snow was also fun to taste).

On the street, I went sledding,
Oh, those sleds can really fly.
Everything was wonderful,
Until the gravel truck came by.

My brother built a snow bear,
It was the coolest one in town.
It stood still with its ears perked up,
‘Til the kitty knocked it down.

I wanted to catch snowflakes,
I’d heard that it was fun.
But trillions of the snowflakes
Would not land upon my tongue.

I watched the snowflakes melting,
No more came falling from the sky.
They had stuck around forever,
It was hard not to cry.

You couldn’t build more snow forts,
Your sleds would not fly.
You snowmen would not not stand,
Goodbye, snow. Goodbye.

Traditional Poetry:
First Place - Youth
Elaina Perpelitt
The Delphian School
Grade 12, Sheridan

(Note: Perpelitt was first and third in this category)

Dramatis Persona
The dramatis persona slipped
out of a playwright’s pen
as yawning, stretching figures.
The ink bodies felt their way
out of yellowed papers
and into the world of men.

A villain clearly made in black and white,
with a brave hero to match,
straight from the playwright’s poem.
Fairy tale characters suddenly
find themselves at home
here in our painfully real stage
with morals screaming wrong or right.

We lend our minds to the story,
and we begin to see past the overbearing
stage makeup and the billowing curtains
We watch, our mouths shut,
(for certain things we do not discuss)

until we realize that we are actually
staring past stereotypes and
into the eyes of the persons
who may or may not
be sitting next to us.

Free Verse:
First Place - Adult
David Hallet, McMinnville

Upper Field
From the road I see a flatbed
parked in the upper field by
the straw bales stacked six high.
Sitting in the cab, door open, leg out,
the driver eats his lunch in the nakedness
of the new harvest. Above,
a hawk eyes his own lunch running
through the stubble of wheat below.

Haiku:
First Place - Children’s
Tatum Frey, Grade 4
Memorial Elementary, McMinnville

Apples
Red, green, pink, yellow
Sour, tart, heavenly apples
Oh no! There’s a worm.

First Place - Youth
Christian Cook, Grade 12
Yamhill-Carlton High School, Yamhill

Wolf
Full moon’s pale light falls
On silver fur, yellow eyes.
Long howl, cold night’s song

First Place - Adult
Vicki Williams, McMinnville

October
touchdowns, tourists, art
tasty pinot on the vine
fall comes to Yamhill

Second and Third Place - Adult
R Zahniser, Yamhill

Two soldiers knocking
Mother answers, listens, cries
Out of lies, this truth.

Cel fon msg?
No, old nfiltrating nu:
wirelex hiku.

The first-place prose pieces by Katie Coy of Newby Elementary (children’s), Maria Pacifici of Yamhill-Carlton High School (youth) and Margaret McGovern of Yamhill (adult) can be seen by clicking here for a PDF download.

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