National Poetry Month is APRIL! 

Presser Performing Arts Center and the Mexico Ledger presents:

Annual Poetry Competition

Deadline April 18 5:00 pm

Winners announced April 30th

$5.00 entry fee per poem  Grand Prize – $100.00 Cash

Rules:

All decisions are final.  Judging will be blind. (do not put your name on entries)  Entry fees are non-refundable.    Keep your original.  Copies will not be returned.  You may enter as many times as you like.  Each entry must include an entry fee and entry form.  All entries must be typed on light colored paper.  You must include 3 copies of each poem.

You may deiliver your entries to

The Mexico Ledger,  300 North Washington,  Mexico, Mo 65265

Payment may be check or cash.  Attach 3 copies of your poem to the entry form.  (NO NAMES on poems!)

Automatic Disqualification:  Graphic language/violent or sexual content.  Missing entry fee or identifying information.  The winnning entries will be published at www.presserpac.com and the Mexico Ledger.

entry form:

“Attached is my original work, never before published in any media.  I agree to all terms.

_________________________________signature

_________________________________print name

_________________________________address (must be a Missouri resident)

_________________________________email

_________________________________phone number

Sponsored by the Mexico Ledger

drop off at, or mail to:

Mexico Ledger

300 North Washington

Mexico, Mo 65265

1^st place winner

by Jami Williams

In Peaceful Sleep

for a soldier

 

In peaceful sleep I lay each night

No dream has cause to fade

I fear not for the morn to come

Nor cloud the sun to shade

 

There’s blood upon the soil I walk

Shed for the very right

To drop my head and close my eyes

In peaceful sleep each night.

 

The past was costly and in his eyes

I still see the children weep

And I pray that God will give him rest

And absolution in peaceful sleep

 

For what he gave so that I could live

In freedom and hope on this day

More than ribbons and pins and his prayers for his sins

While in peaceful sleep I lay

 

I was born of this battle, I carry his flag

But for his courage he suffers alone

A soldier forever until God calls him home

To a peaceful sleep al his own

 

2^nd place winner

by Beth Lower

A Dream

 

He sits beside me

Our hands close – but not touching.

I watch his eyes as he talks

I know their every expression

 

His smile pulls on my heart

I want to share it.

He turns toward me

And I must hide the love in my eyes.

I make some small joke

And his attention turns to someone else.

 

It’s better this way

I can dream as I seem to listen

I dream that our hands are entwined

That we came here as two people in love

And will leave that way.

 

When we dance he sings with the music

And I pretend the words are meant for me.

But then the song is over

My dream is ended

Again he sits beside me – close

But not touching.

 

3^rd Place Winner

By Irene York

Memories

 

I thought I saw them fleeting fast, joyful moments from my past

A laughing child with long brown hair, running and playing without a care

With brothers and pets chasing free, I call for mother to come watch me

Spinning and spinning till we all fall down small laughing bodies upon the ground

 

Out the window I look to see my children running to tag a tree

Each one laughing in sheer delight, all playing tag long in the night

But I know little do not stay; they grow up fast and go away

 

Through the glass all bundled in blue, someone to love I honestly knew

A dream come true for most like me, a grandson first to let me see

That growing old is not so bad, for all my grandchildren I am truly glad

 

Please stop the time it flies so fast, I try to make each moment last

Too old to run too old to play, I bow by head and begin to pray

For precious memories to not go away, but always in my memory stay

 

Honorable Mentions:

John Berkbuegler-Dream Stream,  Becky Craig-Women’s Wings,

Elizabeth Yancey-Horses, Beth Lower-The Greatest Gift,

Chelsea Early-Poems to Live By

April is National Poetry Month!