CITE Spring 2022 Poetry Contest Winners and Poems

CITE Spring 2022 Poetry Contest Winners and Poems
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Each spring, CITE sponsors a Spring Poetry Contest.  The theme for this year's contest was "The Promise of Spring", inspired by the song "Aguas De Marco" by Antonio Carlos Jobim. Each entry to the contest had to contain the phrase, "the promise of spring", somewhere in the poem.  The poem could be imagistic, like Jobim's lyric, a narrative poem or some other form of the author's choice.  

Poems were entered in three age divisions:  Grades 5-8, Grades 9-10 and Grades 11-12.  The contest received a total of 39 entries from 14 different CIS Ontario schools. Each division was judged by members of the CITE Executive Committee.  Congratulations to our winners:


Grade 5-8 Division:

#1 - Jiyun Song, St. Clement's School

#2 - Stefano Edwards, Bayview Glen

#3 - Jessica Yang, St. Clement's School

 

Grade 9-10 Division:

#1 - Marie-Elena Leblanc Bellissimo, Bayview Glen

#2 - Jodie Kan, Bishop Strachan School

#3 - Kristofur Hanimyan, Toronto Montessori School

 

Grade 11-12 Division:

#1 - Nicole DeJesus, De La Salle College

#2 - Lily Gelissen, St. Clement's School

#3 - Madelyn Tuns, Crestwood Preparatory College


Please find below the poems from each of our three first-place winners. Congratulations to all entrants, and to the teachers who mentor and inspire our creative writers all year long.

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Jiyun Song, St. Clement's School
winner of Grade 5-8 Division

Untitled

A yellow petal,
Fallen down and down,
From the waterfall of forsythias.

The spring promises, 
That they’ll be back,
But little do we know,
We have spring everywhere.

Spring in Winter, 
Spring in Fall,
Spring in Summer.

Spring is always in your heart
Even when the coldest wind blows,
And the hottest light burns,
Spring is there for you,
Even when you think you can’t get out of the pit of darkness,
You sometimes have to dig deeper,
To find your spring.

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Marie-Elena Leblanc Bellissimo, Bayview Glen
winner of Grade 9-10 Division

The Promise of Spring

I spend my days waiting for the light to rise again.
The embrace of it on my cheek, kiss of rain in my hair.
After what seems like a lifetime of yearning:
Peace among the clouds, and me.
Silently settling.
Standing at the precipice of a new feeling,
Eagerly awaiting the blooming of it all.

Spring is my sign that I've almost made it.
Soon, she says, you will breathe again.
Smile, and know I will bring summer's sweetness.
The segue from winter's soliloquy
Into summer's divine melody.
So, I sing with what tomorrow will bring:
The promise of spring.

_______________

Nicole DeJesus, De La Salle College
winner of Grade 11-12 Division

Baby Meadow

baby meadow was born
yesterday,
in the back of a house
that won’t exist in
ten years.
she slipped
into the world crying,
her yellow eyes
wandering like
the fleeting sun.

i was here last spring as well,
yet then i was so
far away.
the promise of
spring is not starting
over,
it is keeping
promises,
and my mother gifting
baby meadow with
her face.

my vulnerable feet
dragged along the
meadow of my life.
flowers blossomed
through my veins,
through the heart
of my heart, and the
part of me
that wishes baby meadow
never grows up.

 


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