Age 8 and younger
First Place
Extreme Beauty
Rahela Ward, Southwest Tennessee EMC
If I could love something more than Tennessee,
It’d need to have more than extreme beauty!
Oh, the beauty of flowers, and tall maple trees,
The majesty of nature, the beautiful breeze
The lakes and the rivers, the mountains ashore
The open wide skies, the smells I adore
Yes, other states are not nearly as good,
That’s what I’ve learned throughout my short childhood!
And if you want a beautiful vacation,
But don’t know where to be, if you ask me,
I’ll tell you to go to Tennessee!
So, if I could love something more than Tennessee,
It’d need to have more than extreme beauty!
Second Place
Tennessee
Carolaine Boyd, Sequachee Valley EC
Tennessee is the
right place for me
it has trees
with green leaves
it has rain showers
that bring flowers
it has blue streams,
lakes, and winding
rivers. It has birds that sing
birds that sing and
bees that sting
and that is the right place
for me.
Third Place
TN Heart
Fletcher Johnson, Upper Cumberland EMC
Hearts are like magnets,
when we hug, your heart connects to my heart.
When we are sad, our hearts can break.
Find someone to hug because it will act like a magnet and it will put our hearts back together.
Hearts are sweet.
They are what love is with hugs and kisses.
Age 9–13
First Place
Tennessee River
Adeline Pond, Duck River EMC
A girl at the Walnut Street bridge,
the wood creaks a smidge,
as she looks over the side,
she finds herself tied
as she sees people battling for freedom,
fighting to overthrow a kingdom,
the making of country music,
guitars twanging as they lick.
She feels the soil rich by the waters,
there lay the graves of ancestors,
then sprouts without shyness,
an enchanting purple-hued iris.
She’ll soon realize she’s seen her reflection,
an idea that’s escaped detection.
When the girl leaves,
a gasp she’ll heave
she sees in people no mystery,
each of us Tennesseans
contains such history.
Second Place
Fireflies in a Summer Night
Lila Dillard, Middle Tennessee Electric
Dipping over the yawning valley, colors streak across the sky,
A painting of tranquility. Fawn bedding down in her mother’s crook
Implanting an impression of her body in the grass.
The night cool coming, crickets chirping a chorus, song, an orchestra.
A waiting feeling in the air, night cloaks the ground, frogs croak in their swamp.
Trees are silhouettes, night stalkers swaying, bony people.
Then a light fluttering , flying, flirting and flitting a dance, a prance.
Dazzling light, speeding, spinning. Lanterns in a cellar, bobbing candles landing on my
Chubby fingers. In glass panes-flashlights. Fireflies in a summer night.
Third Place
Sky Battle
Paulina Trout
Lightning shoots
Across the sky
Thunder booms
A battle cry
As mother nature
Begins a war
Rain falls down
More and more
Dark black troops
Fill the sky
Electric bolts
Through the night
There are no stars
But there’s still light
On and on
Both sides fight
Until they decide
To step aside
And continue the fight
On another dark night
Age 14–18
First Place
Lifting the Mask
Melinda Cai
Outcast
Thief
Foul
That’s what they’re called
Feral beasts that dig through waste
Their fangs and claws keen to fight
Their eyes glitter dangerously in the night
But when you shift your gaze
And lift the mask
A new face is revealed
Resilience
They not only survive
They thrive
Spirit
Created to play no matter the terrain
They frolic through the fields as the old sun slumbers
Wisdom
Their knowledge and skill can even best the friend of men
They’re the master of these three things
In 1971 the masked animal was chosen
May the raccoon forever oversee Tennessee
Second Place
Return
Evan Benson, Duck River EMC
My flight carried me in a distant haze,
but now, I recall the place from whence I came,
listening in reverie, to the song of my home.
Its voice, the birdsongs of Summer,
and the chilling, silent Winter nights,
the wailing chorus of coyotes,
and the echoing of the night owl’s cries.
Its nature is secrets, spoken in quiet Spring evenings,
and golden Autumn days.
My senses enriched by sweet verdancy,
my mind calmed by the softly swaying reeds,
I now sit by the river,
which my young heart fondly knew,
clear water reflecting my homesick eyes,
faded sapphire blue.
Third Place
Dawn to Dusk
Leah Pruter, Middle Tennessee Electric
Dawn breaks,
A still world begins to awake.
The veil is lifted on a new day
Adorned in dewdrops that coronate
Light’s reign.
Noon arrives,
Honeyed beams bring new life
To a people longing to revive
Tired eyes, faded smiles, even yet,
Light provides.
Evening glistens,
All creation intently listens
As rich rays christen
Stories in completion under
Light’s vision.
Dusk settles,
The last slivers of light could tell
Of happenings and feelings that swell
A contentment solely in the presence of
Light’s farewell.
Age 19–22
First Place
Silver Dreams
Erin Cogdell, Southwest Tennessee EMC
When summer rests in peaceful death,
And the autumn breeze starts blowing,
Remember me in silver dreams
With passions still now flowing.
When waters are dotted with flower petals,
And winged birds take their flight,
Think of me softly, reading saccharine letters
Penned when for you my heart sighed.
When browning leaves grow old and weak,
And you adorn your hat and coat,
Recall my gentle hand and speech,
That once warmed you in the cold.
When nature’s colors begin to fade
Into the start of something new,
Remember that change is beautiful,
Even if I’m gone from you.
Second Place
Certain Light
Quincy Vongratsamy, Middle Tennessee Electric
Of the certain light that seeped into our skin
when we stood on the white creek bed,
Stones River Lane, looking by the pasture
then not to remember but to see
the stream swollen against the culvert or beside us,
stretched through barbed wire, the steer chewing
flowers and switchgrass from the roadside ditch
Like gouache recollections of light in Knoxville
its color started clear but shone separate between us,
brother Beau; the Lane’s afterglow from your shoulder
now thick and ceremonial,
refracted
in the still born grace of Providence shared
or the boyish water running warm across our feet
Age 23–64
First Place
Tennessee to Me (Ode to My Grandfather)
Ethan Long, Southwest Tennessee EMC
A mesh trucker’s cap rests upon his head
Above snow-white hair and a face tanned red
From days spent beneath the blistering sun
Tilling his garden and pulling the weeds
This is Tennessee to me
Overalls, denim, over a buttoned shirt
Sleeves, never rolled, as he works
With hands calloused and exposed
Plucking tomatoes and shelling peas
This is Tennessee to me
A cigarette dangles from his lips
A tendril of smoke, to the sky, lifts
In a chair by the plot, shucking corn, he sits
Beneath the shade of an old oak tree
This is Tennessee to me
Second Place
Tennessee Tempo
Sabrina Rider Harper, Meriwether Lewis EC
Yonder misty mountain views
Inspire our rivers raging hues
As the wind in the hollow sings gracefully
Through bedrock, vine, and swaying tree
Beyond the shadowed thicket wall
Deer graze on grasses reaching tall
In fields of youth we stroll and play
Unraveling time as it slips away
We speak to the rusty winding track
Croon to the creek as it whispers back
Dance in the streams swift and curled
Watching as life below unfurls
Daring to tarry very long
Caught up in life’s bittersweet song
Upon those gently rolling hills
Lies the grit that Tennessee’s tempo distills
Age 65 and older
First Place
The Palace of Nature
Jane G. Sullivan, Middle Tennessee Electric
When day turns to eventide
Another unusual sunset builds aura
Indian summer contributed radiance
And a dazzling blue sky charmer
Winked as prismatic colors unfolded
Lanterns of magic blushed unguarded
Radiant hue enhanced the atmosphere
Tincture rose with alluring fascination
Pampered with showers of crimson glow
Evening’s fireball danced the equation
Cords of exotic played as violins
Bloody Mary dripped from the sun’s red lips
Intoxicated on currents of wind.
Dusk swallowed illusions of enchantment
Shooting holes through the sun’s red light
The firmament liked spellbound charisma
Refractions had slipped into slumber of night.
Second Place
Little Dreams
Jeanette Elrod, Middle Tennessee Electric
I started singing
Long before I talked
Tapped my foot long
Before I even walked
At the age of three
On our family vacation
To the Grand Ole Opry
I yelled with anticipation
I wanna hear them Pea Pickers
Earl Scruggs, Lester Flatt
Minnie Pearl with her
Tag hanging off her hat
My dreams of being a star
Birthed at the age of three
Along with living in the South
I finally moved to Tennessee
I debuted on the stage
My little dreams came true
On the Grand Ole Opry
Somehow I always knew
Little dreams come true……
