Poet gives voice to contest's winning verse

During poet Nikki Giovanni's visit to the library, she reads works by winners of the Poetry Challenge.

CLEARWATER - The Clearwater Public Library had a special treat for the nine winners of this year's National Poetry Month Poetry Challenge.

The winners' works were read out loud by renowned poet Nikki Giovanni, who visited the city last week for a special reading of her newest collection of poetry.

Giovanni, a political and environmental poet, oohed and aahed over the poems while reading them out loud.

She especially liked a free verse poem by third-place adult category winner Sarah Schaffer, 43, of Clearwater.

"Oh, this is nice," Giovanni said.

Schaffer enjoyed it too.

"It was exciting that she read it," said Schaffer, who runs her own catering service. Schaffer wasn't very familiar with Giovanni's work, but learned a lot at the event, where Giovanni talked about everything from Martians to Rosa Parks.

"I've been thinking about it all day," Schaffer said. "I didn't agree with all of what she said, but her poetry was brilliant, and I wish she had read more poetry instead of making more statements."

Jocelyn Reynolds, 9, of Clearwater thought Giovanni funny.

"I liked when she talked about an alien coming to Earth," said Reynolds, first-place winner in the first- through fifth-grade category. "She said if they came to New Orleans, they wouldn't be any different from anyone else there."

Amy Parker, 17, of Palm Harbor won for the sixth- through 12th-grade category.

Parker, a student at Palm Harbor University High School, liked how the audience interacted with Giovanni.

"She has a strong opinion about pretty much everything," Parker said.

"I think the people that were there, they kind of got to see the person behind the poems."

- Adrienne P. Samuels can be reached at 445-4157 or samuels@sptimes.com

First Place (Children) Jocelyn Reynolds, 9, Clearwater.

A Snowflake! A Snowflake!

I curl up in bed

A Snowflake! A Snowflake!

It's the cold that I dread

The Clearwater Public Library invited contest entrants to write four lines of poetry describing winter or how to prepare for it. The idea came from a Nikki Giovanni poem entitled Winter. Giovanni writes:

Bears store fat

Chipmunks gather nuts

And I collect books

For the coming winter.

I rush outside, and look up high.

I see snowflakes falling from the sky.

I call my family to come outside.

We stand together side by side.

Frost paints the treetops white

Wind blows glitter onto the ground

Snow wraps her fleecy cloak around the earth

North Wind creates icicles as cold as winter's breeze

The ancient, cold-fingered, electric slap

Against warm-blooded skin

Enlivens every nerve 'til it almost hurts.

Better than the bitterest coffee, the icy wind awakens me.

Look outside and see the children playing

drift off to sleep as you curl-up by the fire

the warmth of the glowing flames dance in front of you

the snow falls and puts down a blanket of peace.

That glistening white, falling to the ground

tossing, turning not making a sound

Oh - so beautiful that shining white

Please - Oh - Please - let it snow tonight.

When summer stealthily greens more growth,

where fall's sheared - backs in Spring Shoot forth;

How tombs become wombs of seed success;

Why winter's miracle, a hunger for hope.

breaks my heart

like frosted leaves

underfoot.

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