Second Annual Caitlin Dunbar Memorial Poetry Contest
River Hill High School, Clarksville, Maryland
March 2006

1st Place
I'm Always Here
©Patricia Veasey, 2006
(Reservoir  HS -- Grade 11)

I visited the spot where we always went together.
I sat down and looked around, waiting for you,
but you did not come.
You didn’t come and sit next to me or call my name;
I knew you couldn’t
You had been taken away and so you would not come.
Tears began to stream down my face
But then a hand touched my shoulder and there you were,
Looking as you had last I saw you.
You smiled at me and I smiled back.
“I miss you,” I said
You nodded and said, “I know”.
You sat down beside me and took my hands in yours
“You need to keep going,” you said.
“It’s so hard,” I wept, as more tears streamed.
You lifted your hand and brushed them away.
“It’s ok,” you said. “Live a little, Laugh often, and Love lots”.
I looked again and you were gone
I wiped my eyes and stood up.
As I started to walk away, I heard a faint whisper,
“I’m always here”

Remember how we first met?
You asked for the lilac crayon,
And I handed you the orange.
I hadn’t learned all my colors then.

The toddler years came and past,
And soon it was back-to-school.
Sticker collections and Barbie backpacks,
And hours on the swings.

Why did we ever change?
Lisa Frank became CoverGirl.
Alcohol and cigarettes were for the cool.
Then you turned into one of them.

There were meek hi’s in the halls
And tight-lipped smiles.
Long gone were those laughs of joy.
I always thought yours sounded like music.

Is it too much to ask for
The clock to turn back a few years?
To the times we shared
When we truly lived.

I reach for the telephone,
Yet I tremble, falter, and withdraw my hand.
I’ll stash away these memories for now,
And maybe some sunny day, I’ll face you again.

But,
Have you forgotten?

3rd Place
Our Forbidden Sky
©Rachel Kreutzinger, 2006
(River Hill HS -- Grade 11)

When I cannot see you I’m blind
When I cannot hear your voice I am deaf
Leprosy plagues my hand when it no longer resides in yours.

When I am not walking with you I am lost
When I cannot converse with you I am mute
When I cannot embrace you I am neglected, alone,
A child again, standing among fireflies in tall grass.
Try as I might to catch them they slip through my fingers,
Just as you did.

Each tiny flame growing dimmer with time,
Each light fading with height,
Just as ours will.

When you are gone, the sun will no longer shine, but rather burn in effigy.
And the moon will no longer glow,
But rather pierce the sky with its indignant glare.

I know I will find when you are gone that darkness is but a myth,
And that light is but a fair tale.
When you leave,
The water that now caresses my ankles will become salt.
Perhaps I will shrivel up, and lay among those same blades of grass.
As I watch that yet forbidden sky above,
In wait of our new beginning,
For only there will we once again find love.

3rd Place
The Storm
©Stella Park, 2006
(River Hill HS -- Grade 11)

They say that the calm comes before the storm
When the animals are silent.
Sensing the coming alarm
Everyone quietly packing up to go indoors
Avoiding the coming of the rain.

However I find the calm within the storm
During the shouts and the confrontation.

I step out and lift my hands to the sky
Feeling the cold water hit the palm of my hand
Feeling the blessing of life touch my heart.
I dance around in the rain without a care in the world
Laughing and shouting with glee.
Unaware of the world around me,
I take the opportunity to spill my heart out to the world.

They say that the calm comes after the storm
When the world is silent
And afraid to speak.
Everyone slowly steps out to see the rainbow glisten in the sunlight
In reverent awe, appreciating the beauty of nature.

Every day in time,
I think about years we had,
Blindly piecing them together
To find your smiling face
That lit my world.

You’ll always be inside my mind,
And you should know
That I can never find
Another like you,
My first love

Every night in time,
I mindlessly search in my dreams
For the soft caress of your flushed lips
And the rhythmic pulse from your chest,
Praying that they find a way back to me.

You’ll always lie inside my heart
And you should know
That I’ll never let you go.
There’s no one else like you,
My first love.

Every moment in time,
Nothing nourishes my ravenous soul
Like your piercing memories.
I’d tear myself apart
Just to be with you.

You’ll always be the one,
And that I know.
Come into my life again
Please don’t say no,
My first and only love.

Love and No More Than Just That
©Justin Horner, 2006
(River Hill HS -- Grade 10)

Hoping, waiting, dreaming,
Wishing, lusting, trying,
To fill your heart’s true desire.
Not with objects, tools, or any such thing,
But with love of another.

This person is your hope.
This person is your life.
They become a part of you.
They become another world,
And always make you seem that you were dreaming.

Nothing at all to say,
There is nothing you can do.
There is nothing you can give.
There is nothing to explain.
But only one thing that is shown,
And there is nothing more to dream for.

When together they don’t say a word,
When together they don’t make a sound,
All they do is sit together in a loving way.
All they can do is just be together.
All they can hear is silence.
All they wish to do is happening.
All they want is fulfilled,
When all they want is one another.

The Place
©Lara Jean Landers, 2006
(Carroll Senior HS -- Grade 11)

The unconformable space has a solitude and is somber,
An inescapable solace that is present nowhere else.
The water methodically calls, veraciously tempting one to inquire.
A bringer of question, the instigator of knowledge and pursuit.
The waves lethargically crash... crash... crash: going on without end.

It is like standing in the literary imagery of a perfect horizon.
Flawless, without error or judgement, stemming thought and analysis;
“Your future is just ahead of the horizon, waiting for you, carpe diem”,
We are often told these things. They are ultimately, known premonitions,
Pounded like a good beating into our heads.

But they are gone now, they are gone here, in this place where all is lost.
Calling to everyone, like the sirens of Odysseus, allowing all to fade away.
Disappear into the placid state that is erroneously passed by many travelers,
Feel the nothingness that is such bliss until gently awoken by the soft breeze.
For it is somehow unconsciously omnipresent, a flush of whispers,
Gentle kisses caressing the face, awakening the thought, enlivening the mind.

And in return it provides, when surrendered, unfathomably more.
An experience briefly uninterrupted or obtruded,
Before the sun, until time: the only notion of which is the sun,
Changing night to day, day to night, allowing me to age forever,
On and on, until I reach the eternal sunshine.

Oh how I long! I long for the place.
I long for the illusive lapse, alone without worry,
Together, insignificant, one without time.
I feel it calling me, it is awaiting my return.
And in reply, I yearn for the place...

A Photo: Memory from the Past
©Jessica Tabacca, 2006
(River Hill HS -- Grade 11)

A foggy picture becomes clear
And your voice I can now hear,
Echoing jokes and laughter we share,
Sitting alone, at your picture I glare.

A teardrop falls from my eye,
Glistening as it streams down my face.
A shaking finger wipes it away
And I smile with ease.

Although some people mourn and cry,
It is the sadness and pain I defy.
Your memory is solid, and never fading,
Like the moon that waxes after waning.

Just thinking of you brings great joy.
You are my friend in an immortal bond.
Our memories bring what others cannot see.
Not misery nor sorrow, but a happiness that is true.

What others don’t understand, you always do.
When others do wrong, you guide me to right.
What others say about us, we don’t care
Because I live for you and you live for me.

Together we live, love, laugh.
Together we define harmony.

View
©Donna Yao, 2006
(River Hill HS -- Grade 12)

To laugh is as sweet as peaches and cream;
To frown is as debilitating as to loose sound.
Live life and cherish those simple pleasures like
Ghandi claims, “Learn as if you were going to
live forever, live as if you were going to die
tomorrow.”
“Take risks because you never know what you’re
going to get.” (anonymous)
So:
To succeed is to feel accomplished,
To be happy is to feel satisfied, and
To be fulfilled is to live life.