2013 NCPS Adult Contest Winners
Poet Laureate Award
First Place: Susan Lefler, “The Gravedigger’s Wife Ponders”
Finalists:
Tony Abbott, “A Poem for My Daughter on Her Fiftieth Birthday”
Evie Henderson, “Me and Jesus by the Roadside”
Mary Hennessy, “Home to See My Brother”
Robert Katrin, “Imagine”
Richard Krawiec, “Silent Day”
Stacey Libbert, “Forgiveness”
Rosalyn Marhatta, “The Man from Yemen”
Sharon Sharp, “Homeplace Reflections”
Priscilla Webster-Williams, “Violin”
[Final Judge: Joseph Bathanti; Screening Judge: Laure-Anne Bosselaar]
Mary Ruffin Poole American Heritage Award
First Place: Bill Griffin, “Earlene’s Gift of Fifty”
Second Place: Tom Johnson, “Money”
Third Place: Susan Lefler, “A Question of Angels”
Honorable Mentions:
Joan Barasovska, “October”
C. G. Thompson, “Intermezzo”
[Judge: Michael Smith]
Poetry of Courage Award
First Place: Marjorie McNamara, “What You Pray For”
Second Place: Mary Hennessy, “What Have You Got {Left) to Lose?”
Third Place: Ralph Earle, “Kerosene”
Honorable Mentions:
Valerie Macon, “Detour”
David Manning, “Dolorosa”
Nancy Posey, “On the Other Hand”
[Judge: Mary Carroll-Hackett]
Griffin-Farlow Haiku Award
First Place: Ernest Berry, ‘stormy night”
Second Place: Scott Owens, “after dawn a moment”
Third Place: Timothy Russell, “chestnut moon”
Honorable Mentions:
Elizabeth Burgess, “sun throwing sparks’
Glenn Coats, “wind through a field”
[Judge: Gene Myers]
Joanna Catherine Scott Traditional Form Award
First Place: Bill Griffin, “Sufficiency”
Second Place: Deborah Doolittle, “Emma Lazarus Transplants a Wandering Jew”
Third Place: Mary Hennessy, “Near the Wine-dark Water”
Honorable Mentions:
Carol Meeks, “Fine Arts a Must for Smooth World”
Karol Neufeld, “Education”
[Judge: Betsy Wheeler]
Poetry of Love Award
First Place: Mary Hennessy, “The Hostel on Mazowiecka Where All the Rooms Are Named After Women”
Second Place: Scott Owens, “Keeping Pace”
Third Place: Glenn Cassidy, “The Great Beyond”
Honorable Mentions:
Barbara Blanks, “Comfort Zone”
Richard Krawiec, “I Believe”
Elizabeth Swann, “I Asked the Class, ‘Who Believes in Love at First Sight?’”
[Judge: Suzanne Frischkorn]
Thomas McDill Award
First Place: Sandra Lassen, “Annie’s Way”
Second Place: Tori Reynolds, “Trapeze”
Third Place: Justin Hunt, “Half-Light”
Honorable Mentions:
Mary Hennessy, “Winter-Wrung Possibility”
Joanna McKethan, “In Her Sphere”
Nellie Yancey, “Tractors and Tiny Lockets”
[Judge: kathryn l. pringle]
KK McIntyre Light Verse Award
First Place: Nick Sweet, “Blast from the Past”
Second Place: Bonnie Korta, “Conjuring the Devil”
Third Place: Bruce Lader, “On the Other Hand”
Honorable Mentions:
Jill Coyle, “Happiness”
Karol Neufeld, “What to Do with Rejection Slips”
[Judge: Sarah Sweeney]
Caldwell Nixon Award
First Place: Mary Hennessy, “For My Grandson: An Obsession is Something To Hold Onto”
Second Place: Wolf Bolz, “Aflying We Shall Go”
Third Place: Sandra Lassen, “A Blessing for Children”
Honorable Mentions:
Carole Knowles, “10:53 PM”
Betsy Sprague, “The Cat’s Meow (How Grimalkin Stole the Show)”
[Judge: Phebe Davidson]
Ruth Morris Moose Sestina Award
First Place: Bill Griffin, “Find Me in the Woods”
Second Place: Karol Neufeld, “Winter Soliloquy”
Third Place: Deborah Doolittle, “Once Upon a House”
Honorable Mentions:
Jo Taylor, “Epic Lament”
Eric Weil, “The Season of Hope”
[Judge: Sandra Beasley]
2012 NCPS Adult Contest Winners
This Book Will Never Be Finished
One evening
while we read together by the fire and you showed me
how to fold cranes for the grandchildren, your fingers
sure on the bright paper squares, I knew
I’d spent way too many nights hurrying through dinner
to my desk upstairs, too many weeks away studying, striving.
Then and there, in the living room we’d rearranged around the hearth,
sofas right-angled, tall lamp in the corner shining for us both,
I decided to come home from searching everywhere
for what I had right here.
It didn’t seem important to say it, only to know it and begin.
After you died in our bed,
your robe on the chair, clock set for seven,
for years scenes flashed across my sleep:
My father, crumpled beneath forsythia on his stroll to breakfast.
The tennis serve your friend never returned.
A spoonful of broth trailing to my uncle’s pillow.
Our doctor’s swim, ended at sea.
The soprano hurrying to choir, forgetting to look both ways.
Medics in our house on a night like any other,
your briefcase by the door.
Finally you spoke to me in the dream, parsing your words
for emphasis, so like you. Listen, you said. Listen to me.
We are all temporary.
I’ve never stopped looking for our perfect closing.
The kiss. The said goodbye.
No matter what I write, it isn’t that. It never can be.
Nothing is ever finished. It simply stops.
One ragged breath and the next not there.
-MARY CREWS
2012’s NCPS Poet Laureate Award winning poem.
Poet Laureate Award
Winner: “This Book Will Never Be Finished” Mary Crews
Finalists (unranked): Patty Cole, Bill Griffin, Mary Hennessy, Claire Hermann, Marylin Hervieux, Larry Sorkin, Elizabeth Swann, Alice Wallace, Eric Weil
Joanna Catherine Scott Award
First Place: Stan Absher, “Pregnant”
Second Place: Judith Behar, “Country Pond”
Third Place: Ellen Summers, “A Sonnet’s Call to Form”
Honorable Mentions:
Margie Emshoff, “October Artichoke”
Cari Grindem-Corbett, “Navajo Canyon”
Crystal Simone Smith, “Daydreamer”
Mary Ruffin Poole American Heritage Award
First Place: Mary Crews, “The Organic Farmer’s Daughter”
Second Place: Elizabeth Swann, “Missionary Teacher at the Indian School”
Third Place: : Valerie Macon, “Repossession”
Honorable Mentions:
Valerie Nieman, “Escapement”
Scott Owens, “First Flight”
Nick Sweet, “Victory Dance, 1945”
Poetry of Love Award
First Place: Andrea Bates, “A Bridge Is for Leaving Things Behind”
Second Place: Alice Osborn, “Duty, after Nelson’s Last Signal at Trafalgar”
Third Place: Alexis Gines, “Before You Ask”
Honorable Mentions:
Ruth Moose, “Cutting His Hair a Year Later”
Nancy Young, “Ode to Bo”
Bruce Lader, “The Enemies Exchange Fire”
Katherine Kennedy McIntyre Light Verse Award
First Place: Mary Barnard, “Falling Back”
Second Place: Valerie Macon, “That’s Good Eatin’”
Third Place: : Claudette Cohen, “I, Demogorgon”
Honorable mentions
Margie Emshoff, “Obsessing Over Fears”
”; Barbara Campbell, “Love at Trader Joe’s”
Jill Coyle, “Gastronomy of Modern Art”
Griffin-Farlow Haiku Award
First Place: Lee Pelham Cotton, “golden palm upturned”
Second Place: C. S. Bouton, “weathered cedar box”
Third Place: Lavern McCarthy, “a fledgling sparrow”
Honorable Mention:
Katherine Barr, “yellow leaves falling”
John Fedyna, “fallen snowflakes”
Sharon Sharp, “Blue Ridge path, milkweed”
Poetry of Courage Award
First Place: Andrea Bates, “Homage to Shoulders”
Second Place: Tori Reynolds, “Disturbing the Peace”
Third Place: Scott Owens, “What You Could Do in a Closet”
Honorable Mentions:
Glenn Cassidy, “The Geriatric Archipelago”
Mary Crews, “Paper Family”
Marjorie McNamara, “Hearing for the Divorce Postponed”
Caldwell Nixon Jr. Award
First Place: : Ellen Summers, “Everything Is Round at the Circus”
Second Place: Sharon Sharp, “From Hair to Hare and Back”
Third Place: Claudette Cohen, “Owen Found”
Honorable Mentions:
Shirley Jones, “The Seashell’s Story”
Patricia Podlipec, “New Sled”
Jules Riley, “A Rainy Day”
Thomas H. McDill Award
First Place: Debra Kaufman, “Ruth”
Second Place: Mary Crews, “Refrigerator Magnet: Our Last Picture”
Third Place: Joe Mills, “The Education Process”
Honorable Mentions:
Katherine Barr, “Plastic Bags”
Marjorie McNamara, “Piece Goods”
Richard Taylor, “Saving for Retirement”
2011 NCPS Contest Winners
Mrs. Just In Case
They tell me I should say the thing I cannot say,
to direct it skyward,
written in black marker
on a piece of tissue paper,
attached to the knot end
of a red, white, and blue balloon
and string that I will release
along with seven thousand others
in the middle of a park,
in the middle of D.C.,
near the white mushroom cloud
of the capitol.
That’s how everything looks
to me now.
Even though I’ve never seen an IED,
I know its ghost plumes
in the bulbs of cauliflower
mom steams for dinner
and serves with gobs of cheese
as if eating it that way
makes grief easier to swallow.
I see its shrapnel
in the petals of the daisies
I draw on my bare knees,
tattooing my body
with the black mark
of the widow.
I am only eighteen
but there is much to remember:
Courthouse steps slick with rain,
justice honorably presiding,
to give us that one last week
of husband
and wife,
a motel room on the beach,
nine bottles of wine
we drank illegally, under age
but old in other ways,
the papers we had to sign
just in case, just in case.
I want to write the general:
Why not give us truckloads
of tissue as standard issue?
But instead I see your eyes
floating above the name
I sign: Mrs., just in case
some miracle of helium
and wing of angel
delivers something of me
to wherever you’ve gone to.
-ANDREA BATES
2011’s NCPS Poet Laureate Award winning poem.
Joanna Catherine Scott Award (Richard Katrovas, Judge)
First Place: “The Ground of Craft” Sharon Sharp
Second Place: “Yellow Pantoum” Andrew Kalnik
Third Place: “Ted and Sylvia Sestina” Beth Cagle Burt
Honorable Mentions:
“Sonnet: When Winter Winds” Judith Behar
“A Haibun on Fog” Cari Grindem-Corbett
“Robert Herrick’s Argument for the Bluebells in the Field” Deborah Doolittle
Mary Ruffin Poole American Heritage Award (David Huddle, Judge)
First Place: “Black Lace Against the Blue Sky” Deborah Doolittle
Second Place: “Autumn Rituals” Joan McLean
Third Place: “Pritchitts Fish Camp” Peggy Gambill
Honorable Mentions:
“Rain in Greenriver” Cari Grindem-Corbett
“1934: Conversations among Works in a Textile Mill” Marjorie McNamara
“The American Dream.” Catherine Entrocaso
Poetry of Love Award (Lola Haskins, Judge)
First Place: “Frank and Alice: A Love Story” Terri Kirby Erickson
Second Place: “When You Were Ten” Judith Behar
Third Place: “Sanctuary” Cari Grindem-Corbett
Honorable Mentions:
“I’ll Tell You What” Corrie Lynn White
“Beach Bird of a Pop” Amber Crews
“Longing” Bob Katrin
Katherine Kennedy McIntyre Light Verse Award (Franz Wright, Judge)
First Place: “Taking Out the Trash” Cathy C. Hall
Second Place: “Superbowl Party” Betsy Sprague
Third Place: “Parking With My Girl On A Summer Evening” Eric Weil
Honorable mentions
“The Low-down on On Last Week’s Match Games” Sharon Sharp
“Attention” Britt Kaufmann
“Stopping By Home On a Summer Afternoon.” Lynn McLure
Lyman Haiku Award (Roberta Beary, Judge)
First Place: “steady rain” Lynn McLure
Second Place: “Silent Night” Chen-ou Liu
Third Place: “daffodils” Patricia Daharsh
Honorable Mention:
“morning light on dunes-“ Cari Grindem-Corbett
Poetry of Courage Award (Simon J. Ortiz, judge)
First Place: “Petition” Anne Vilen
Second Place: “The small one I have…” Genevieve Fitzgerald
Third Place: “and the levees break on New Orleans” Marjorie McNamara
Honorable Mentions:
“When the Rooster Crows” Rosalyn F. Lomax
“The Loving Cup” MaXine Carey Harker
Caldwell Nixon Jr. Award (Sharon F. McDermott, Judge)
First Place: “Mrs. McGree’s Menagerie” Joel Shulkin
Second Place: “Between Us” Florence Weinberger
Third Place: “Gigue” Bill Griffin
Honorable Mentions:
“Water Fountain” Betsy Humphreys
“Freedom School” Susan Lefler
“Bugs Galore” Julie Stuckey
Thomas H. McDill Award (Toi Derricotte, Judge)
First Place: “Men of the Deeps” Betsy Humphreys
Second Place: “Flying Blind” Jenny Ward Anyal
Third Place: “Orientation” Amber Crews
Honorable Mentions:
“Sunset Roanoke Sound” Bill Griffin
“Soul Food” Valerie Macon
“Alberto Caeiro Speaks to Lorca of Sheep” Deborah Doolittle
Poet Laureate Award (Myrna Stone, pre-judge, Cathy Smith Bowers, final judge)
In no particular order:
1. “Mrs. Just In Case” Andrea Bates
2. “After You Tell Him It’s Over” Elizabeth Swann
3. “Eating Pizza With a Buddhist Monk” Ione O’Hara
4. “Alex” Michael Beadle
5. “Mirrored Vision” Betsy Sprague
6. “What the Venerable Bede Might Have Said” Maria Rouphail
7. “The Birdlover’s Lover” Deborah Doolittle
8. “Credo” Dave Manning
9. “Homestead Lilac” Coyla Barry
10. “13 Ways of Heaven on Earth” Scott Owens
2010 NCPS Contest Winners
A Visitor
For Lih’s mother
Shuffling between kitchen and living room,
she carries trays of sliced mangoes,
salted rice patties, and red bean sweets,
a crown of utility carefully balanced
over tragedy’s swiveling door.
She opens the paper wrappings,
hands delicate as a crocus unfolding
in the morning light. Little hands working
to part the frail chapter of circumstance
where histories float like clouds on an untouchable scrim.
A husband long dead and children long grown,
she hums now in perpetual migration
strummed by memories quiet as dusk-
notes plucked from hills overgrown with simple reasons
prying her open as stars from distant galaxies
pierce the silent circumference of night.
How roots cling to raked earth
and a culture slides down a mountain
into the heart-shaped contours of her lips
settling there in soft syllables
that ripen in her smile like tomatoes
in the scalding Taiwanese sun.
She courts her years, still a child playing dress-up,
desire toted like a feather hat or an afterthought;
a parasol sprouts from the tiny bulb of her hand,
and her eyes follow with unintended curiosity
as the palm leaves flap their giant
destinies in the window.
-ANYA RUSSIAN
2010’s NCPS Poet Laureate Award winning poem.
2010 Winners
Adult Contests
Brockman-Campbell Book Award
- A Necklace of Bees by Dannye Romine Powell
Thomas H. McDill Award – Poems up to 60 lines
- Cinnamon by Andrea Bates
Caldwell Nixon Jr. Award – Poems for Children
- When Two Brothers Must Have Felt Like Birds by Betsy Sprague
Joanna Catherine Scott Award – Poems in Traditional Forms
- Anagoge II by MaXine Carey Harker
Mary Ruffin Poole American Heritage Award – Poems up to 32 lines, on theme of American Heritage
- Quik Stop by Debra Kaufman
Katherine Kennedy McIntyre Light Verse Award – Light verse poems up to 32 lines
- A Thank-You Note by Sheila Turnage
Lyman Haiku Award – 3-line haiku
- spring rivulets by Glenn G. Coats
Poetry of Courage Award – Poems up to 32 lines, on theme of courage or crisis
- English 1200 Visits the Library by Nancy P. Shires
Poetry of Love Award – Poems up to 32 lines, on theme of love
- Gertrude Stein Counts Three Bachelor’s Buttons by Deborah H. Doolittle
Student Contests
Travis Tuck Jordan Award – Grades 3 through 5
- Clouds by Anselmo Salazar
Joan Scott Memorial Award – Poems about the environment, grades 3 through 8
- Summer Skies by Rachel Carroll
Mary Chilton Award – Grades 6 through 8
- Prayer by Maya Gouw
Sherry Pruitt Award – Grade 9 through university undergraduate
- Newport Orphanage by Jeremy Sexton
Lyman Haiku Award – 3-line haiku, for grade 9 through university undergraduate
- Eruption of Spring by Colton Faucette