Prizes

Gift certificates to Barnes & Noble will be awarded to first, second, and third prize winners in each age group.

1st Place- $40

2nd Place- $30

3rd Place- $20

All winning poems will be published in the Amani program booklet, and the poets will be invited to read their poems at the festival on May 7th.

Winning poems have the opportunity to be published in The Earl, a quarterly literary e-magazine produced by Post Now PA. Edited by Ray Cressler, The Earl strives to provide creative minds a forum to express unused ideas and along with Post Now PA, nurture an environment ideal for expression. The Earl can be accessed online at TheEarlofShippensburg.com

Contest Chair

Shippensburg University Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) is proud to coordinate the Sixteenth Annual Amani Festival Poetry Contest for children and youth.

AMANI Committee Members:

Christina Swartzlander

Alondra Thomas

Krista McCoy

Leah Haugh

Heather Clark

Carolyn Blasek

Rachel Flynn

 

The Public Relations Student Society of America chapter at Shippensburg University offers students a chance to gain public relations experience while networking with similarly minded students and professionals.

Judges

Almost Uptown

Through weekly literary readings at the Midtown Cinema's Reel Cafe, special event readings, poetry slams, workshops, and publications, the Almost Uptown Poetry Cartel seeks to grow and enhance awareness of Pennsylvania's literary and artistic community.

Reflector

The Reflector is Shippensburg University's undergraduate literary journal, a publication with a tradition spanning decade.  The editorial staff includes aspiring poets and fiction writers who have sharpened their artistic eye not only by writing impressive work but also by judging the many submissions the magazine receives each year.

Post Now PA

Post Now PA is a contemporary arts organization located in Shippensburg, PA. Their goal is to promote and encourage the appreciation of art, music, and culture in the Shippensburg area for the enjoyment of all. They strive to provide a continuing medium for the growth of arts and culture with the intent to inspire others to do the same. More information can be found at PostNowPA.com

Carlisle Poets

Janet Manwaring is the new President for the Carlisle Poets. She will be overseeing the judging process.

Students were invited and encouraged to participate in the poetry contest to show how this year's festival theme, Plant Peace Harvest Harmony, enhances the festival's mission.  Here are this year’s winners:

First Place Poem – Grades 1-3

The Peace Garden

By Olivia Renault, 2nd Grade

Mooreland Elementary

In my peace garden I will grow…

Fruit for everyone

Strawberries for love,

Peaches for passion,

Pears for kindness,

Mangoes for harmony,

Bananas for understanding,

Apples for sharing,

Tangerines for happiness,

and Passion Fruit for playfulness.

ALL TOGETHER ON ONE TREE

Third Place Poem – Grades 1-3

Peace

By Rose Leitner, 1st Grade

Grace B. Luhrs University Elementary

Peace is a word you say

When you say it

It stops conflict

You have to feel it

In your heart

Then people and animals

Get together

Life is sometimes peaceful

But not always

As the trees sway

In the wind

It is peaceful

Peace is a word you say

You have to feel it

In your heart

Second Place Poem – Grades 1-3

Planting Peace and Harvesting Harmony

By Cameron Puher, 3rd Grade

Bellaire Elementary

If you plant a garden,

Make sure you plant this seed.

It’s called the plant of peace.

Make sure you harvest it with lots of harmony.

Sing out loud sing so proud.

Peace,

harmony,

Come

on!

You have words.

Don’t be lazy!

Help each other,

And be good to everyone.

First Prize:

Katie Junga

CASD Hamilton, Grade 5

Corn, tomatoes, peppers

Cantaloupe, watermelon, strawberries

Some are sweet or spicy and maybe even bitter

But . . .

Somehow they form together

From different backgrounds

To different religions

And skin color

With some help

My garden

Will produce nice juicy fruits and veggies

And when they cooperate

Then join together

Friendships are formed

From their differences

To come together

To make a salad

Like my community

Second Place:  Peace on Earth

Catherine Crochunis-Brown, Shippensburg Grace B. Luhrs, Grade 4

Sometimes I think about the world,

Standing at the top of some high place,

And I look down at a street full of people

Looking down into each and every face,

And each and every person there

Is thinking, “my way is best.”

Of cooking food, of living life.

If people could just come to rest,

And accept and live with each other’s ways,

Then there would be no dark, sad days.

Then there would finally be peace on earth.

Third Place: The Acrostic Peace

Christian Witmer, Grade 4, Big Spring, Oak Flat

People

Loving

And

Nurturing

Through

Peace

Equality

And

Caring

Ending

Hatred

And

Racism

Violence

Encouraging

Supportive

Treatment

Happiness

And

Reconciliation

Making

One

Nation

Yoked through the Amani Vision

Jessica Addington

Big Spring

Grade 8  (1st place)

Red River

Muskets fire,

red rivers flow.

The sky, covered in clouds

of hate and gun smoke.

The smile in the sky, hidden by a black fog.

Lives put o the line to make us one

For they knew we were different,

but also the same.

They looked under the skin to see,

a heart beats,

a rid river flows,

a mind full of ideas an memories,

a soul.

So before you decide to hate

think of all we share,

and the red river your hate let go.

We need to come together as one,

and be an ocean of steel.

United and strong.

Haitian and Different

by: Sarah Pavlovich (2cd place)

As I sit here thinking

I suddenly feel a jolt,

The earth cracked,

It rumbled…as our

House cracked down I couldn’t see anything.

My bothers gone.

I can’t see them,

my sister…well I don’t know.

What I do know has

all faded away.

No safe home nor any comforting

parents around.

Are they alive?

Are they dead?

None of me can tell,

my soul has been ripped apart.

I wonder where my family is,

Are they safe and sound?

Can they hear my call?

Or, are they lying dead?

The sound is going in one ear

ad out the other.

Hours later some men

Came to help…

They sent me off to, well, what’s left

of the airport.

The airport was

Full of kids.

As I stood there

more and more kids

piled in.

We all waited

and waited…

A little while later a booming

voice cried out over us,

when we were then

told to get on this big vehicle and sit quickly

and quietly.

We then took off.

I hear screaming

And crying children.

I’m lost, I don’t

Know where I am.

But, what I do know,

Is that my family is nowhere around.

I am alone…

All alone.

A few hours later

felt as if days went by.

Finally we were on the ground.

Wait, why am I different here?

Why is everyone watching

Me?

Why is my skin a different color?

Why? What did I do?

Where have they taken me?

My soul has been

ripped apart as well

as my family.

Why?

When I got off the

vehicle we walked

to a big building.

There were children

of many colors. Who were

All these children?

Later, some older

Men came into the

room.

We were told we would

be placed in homes.

Why? What homes?

When I got to

my “new home”, I was

not welcomed.

They were while; I was black.

They said I was different.

The only difference

that I see is I am Haitian.

They are American.

But what’s the difference?

What’s wrong with me?

I just wish I could go home.

Mayce V. JJustinia 

Wilson Middle School  Mrs. Crumlich  6W

(3rd place)

In the desert, where the remains of peace lie

I stand there, peacefully, patiently, and weary, having to look up to you all

You say that you’re playing

But I see your acts of torture, oppression, and hatred

What’s worse, during your meaningless war, you trample every flower in your way, just before I get to see

them

I doubt that I’ll ever see one in my lifetime

But hope still courses through my veins

I pray for the rain to come to this dreaded wasteland

It would let more flowers bloom, and we could quench our thirsts

But the flowers are still hidden from my view

I doubt that I’ll ever see one in my lifetime

But hope still courses through my veins

You tell me I am but a child, someone who could never understand this “justice”

That doesn’t mean I can’t understand your words of hatred, difference, and mockery

Even the animals understood your words and deeds

Have you not seen that they have fled their own homeland?

The flowers have not given up on you, but you choose to stomp on them

I doubt I’ll ever see one in my lifetime.

But hope still courses through my veins

So I stand beside the bones of true justice, equality, and peace, the bones of my beloved ancestors

Do you not remember when you accused them of such evil acts, your acts?

Even here, near the bones, you mock their graves by stepping upon the flowers that bloomed there out of respect

I doubt that I’ll ever see one in mu lifetime

But hope will forever run through my veins.

First Place 9-12

An Exchange, by Elizabeth McCune, CASD, Grade 9

An Exchange

There is a hot despairing sun in my old home.

An arid heat covers the entire land.

The water is not clean and families are not fed.

My sisters are not educated and my brothers are taken away.

Five times daily a cry rings.

Five times daily I get on my knees.

There is a yellow house in my old home.

Neat fences and green gardens are popular.

The water is delicious and my children are safe.

My wife is beautiful and I have comrades for brothers.

Five months now we’ve been away from home.

In five months I’ll hold my baby girl.

After many, many, days

The echoes of gunshots ceased,

And my father wept for joy and sorrow.

He said, “Allah! We are Safe! Please guard the dead.”

The next day we learned a school was to be built.

We lost so many in those days...

And my heart is burdened with things that cannot be unseen.

I asked God,

“Was it worth it?”

Soon the poppies in my mother’s garden bloomed

And the people were happier than I’d seen in a long time.

My father said we owed the strange men much

And should thank them somehow.

I picked Mama’s poppies

and whispered a “thank you” into their petals.

A little girl came to me

Holding a blood-red flower.

As she passed one to my hands

She sang out the words “Inshallah.”

The man took the poppy with his fingers.

After I wished God’s will,

He said the words “Hallelujah.”

I knew then I fought for that little girl as well.

I knew then he was not my enemy.

Second Place 9-12

Harmony Song, by Lindsey McGee Jones

11th Grade Big Spring High School

Harmony Song

You can feel it

The air is throbbing

Humming, singing

The harmony song

It fills your very soul

Buoying you up

Giving you peace,

The harmony song.

The bullfrog will croak it

The fish will gargle it

The hawk with caw it

The stork will hum it

The bee will buzz it

The cat will meow it

The dog will bark it

The butterfly will whisper it

It fills your very soul

Buoying you up

You want to sing along

The harmony song

You can feel it

The air is throbbing

Humming, singing

The harmony song

Third Place 9-12

Amanda Joann Martin

SADS Grade 12

Planting Acceptance

Acceptance is a seed

When the seed is planted within someone

Judgment, verdict, and prejudices

Become a thing of the past

It isn’t just about tolerance

This seed is about caring for and respecting others

Even if they do not look or act like you

The seed fosters love itself

Like any other seed, this young form needs nurturing

It will not grow overnight

It is a day by day process

Simply because patience is necessary to generate tolerance

The seed of acceptance is gentle; fragile even

Practice and patience the equivalent of water and sunlight

These elements will make it grow

As long as it is planted deep enough to be secure

There are many different types of flowers in the world

No two have the same color, texture, or shape

Different seeds take different forms

But all flowers must have acceptance within their vibrant colors

In order to become an effervescent garden

A garden is never made up of only one flower

Roses, lilies, daises, and daffodils

Not one flower outshines another

And so the harmony and peace lives among them

And that’s what makes them beautiful

Plant acceptance

Harvest love