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By null, Times Staff WriterDuring 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
Winning workFirst 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
Giovanni, other poets describe winter in four linesThe 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.
Second place, Adriana Thrasher, fifth grade, Clearwater: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.
Third place, Amy Lui, 9, DunedinFrost 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
First place (grades 6-12), Amy Parker, 17, Palm HarborThe 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.
Second place, Brandon Higgins, 13Look 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.
Third place, Michelle Partridge, 12, LargoThat 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.
Second place (adults), Colin Supple, 73, ClearwaterWhen 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.
Third place, Sarah Schaffer, 43, Clearwaterbreaks my heart
like frosted leaves
underfoot.