Age 9–13
First Place
Smallest Blessings
Beckett Smith
Sequachee Valley EC
Big doesn’t mean great,
Small can be even better.
Happiness doesn’t have to come from gifts,
It can come from a simple letter.
One ant is part of a colony,
A raindrop is part of a storm,
One brick is part of a house,
But it still keeps you warm.
The tiniest seed can make a tree,
Big and great and fruitful.
A hug can change a life,
That can turn into something beautiful.
Second Place
What are you Volunteering For?
Megan DiCello, Southwest Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation
What are you waiting for?
For the right or liberty?
To stop the enemy at the door?
for everyone who loves thee?
What are you waiting for?
Something that means a lot to you?
Bullets cause deadly sores,
But, for the love its easy to do.
Andrew Jackson gave the call.
Forty thousand Tennesseans stand tall.
None turn back on way to Mexico.
Swear to the hundred eighty seven
We never forget the alamo!
That is what I volunteer for,
That is what makes us great,
That is what I fight for,
We are the volunteer state.
Third Place
The Darkness of Night
Lucy Day, Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation
In the dark you dream in the dark
you sleep the owls whoo and the bats
screach and if your quiet enough you’ll
sometimes hear a mouse squeak or
deers run across your yard at the
end of the night the spiders get ready
to go to sleep, the owls come home, and
the cats wait at the door.
Age 14–18
First Place
Bubblegum Tact
Cheyenne Lackey
Cumberland EMC
Swallowing lake water
Head to the concrete
Construction zone cones
Reflecting, but the
Street lights cut off at midnight
Mouth still tastes like bubblegum
Picked up from the concrete
And kept chewing
Like a recycled city
Sticky like memories
Clinging onto
Scraped knees
And a false
Sense of glee.
Life is never free
When you’re bound by the ‘Ville
Now too busy
Choking on my words in an empty room
Why does it always feel
Like I’m talking to an empty room
Too many people and
Too old for my butterfly clips
Still coughing up dirt
From the construction zone.
Second Place
Well Rounded
Meghan Campbell
her eyes are fire,
her head the earth.
her lips speak words of water,
her hands give way to air.
she says she is something fragile.
she does not know her power.
she is a part of everything,
everything is a part of her.
you see,
when you are surrounded by mountains,
there is nowhere to go but up.
Third Place
To Fly
Ellie Vinson, Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation
Dear baby bird,
Your dreams of air and sky
Are enchanting,
But to leave the nest
Can be too daunting.
Why it’s safe to stay put.
Yet, your heart yearns for flight,
And your wings can’t help but carry you.
Goodbye will feel so marvelous!
That nest is comfortable,
But to fly
To fly
Is everything.
The nest is good, for now,
And you’ll remember it fondly…
As your breath becomes the wind
And you dance with the stars.
Love,
Your future
Age 19–22
First Place
Home Grown
Natalie Favia
Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation
A certain honesty lingers over the town square
the moonlight’s glare
the church bell’s blare
A humble land shaped by tradition
the gravel road’s condition
the musician’s ambition
Three stars encircled together
family for the better
weathered country roots forever
A new generation of people arrive
eager to thrive, fancier trucks to drive
More mailboxes erected
farmland continuously affected
Yet the rocking chair still rocks
and the horses’ stable still locks
And the honesty rooted in raw soil
remains steady in the hearts of the loyal
Age 23–64
First Place
I Am the South
Marvin Saylors
Caney Fork EC
I’m the Tennessee Waltz and all night strings.
With the sun and the beautiful springs
I’m Huck and Tom and the old folks at home,
Being at Clingman’s Dome
I’m hanging moss on a live oak tree
Southern fried chicken and a cypress knee
Tennessee is the land of dreams,
With trout jumpin’ in a cool clear stream.
I am a tall pine,
with something on my mind.
I am everything good you have ever thought about
Hush yo’ mouth I’m the South.
Second Place
Your Granny’s Dead
Karen Stevens, Upper Cumberland Electric Membership Corporation
Call in the early morning
at bedside arriving
staff looking sad
oxygen pumping
Snack cart rolls in
She wriggled her toes!
Ninety-three years enough
Flip the switch daughters
Family gathers ’round
Lovingly visited memories
Cat’s food on top of shed
Trips to beach and park
Laughing, touring, thriving
Living locally at lake
Vacationing in summer
Has breathing stopped?
Ask the nurse the time
Sweet lady in Heaven
Tell three teens
Roses at funeral
Passing from life to new life
She’s gone home.
Third Place
Southern Tennessee
Melodie Sanders, Caney Fork Electric Cooperative
Sweet southern land,
Don’t take it for granted.
Home of sweet taters, and chicken,
Harvested crops we’ve planted.
Oh the southern flawless life,
Sweet tea, and pumpkin pies,
Warm fires, and tractor pulls,
And catching fire flies.
The southern way is beautiful,
We have friends and family,
Lots of hugs, and bible stories,
And cookouts are a dandy.
I love this southern life,
A taste of country at its’ best,
Shotguns, and four wheel drives,
And prayers cause we are blessed.
Welcome to the southern way,
Respect our laws and hospitality,
Comfort food, and agriculture,
Produced here in Tennessee!
Age 65 and older
First Place
Indigo Bunting
Millie Ungren
Pickwick EC
Who named you little bird
an artist splash of indigo
across a lovely windex sky
Perched atop the tassels on my corn
threatening me with your song
‘lest I find that tiny spot
where you have woven in and out
the thatch
You chirp and fly away
as I approach
a melody more beautiful
than an angel’s song
I hear the crafty crows
I see the hawks serene on
thermal columns far above
And yet, you wait and watch
your created masterpiece
encasing now four speckled orbs
as tiny as a pea
the beginning of your indigo family tree.
Second Place
Witness
John C. Mannone
Below shoulders, half-hidden
by spindly hair, my skin needled,
marked deep, black & blue
ink—stitched Iris and Dragon.
My African Grey whistles, shrill
and urgent, but not a call to sate
her lingering hunger, but rather
to warn. She knows his redneck-halo
well, as he stumbles through the door
and falls. She grips the cage-frame
wires—claws ready; rage trigger set.
Then edges ever so cautiously, fear
tattooed in her eyes; ready to dash
through bars to attack and protect
if necessary. Screeches “Get out!”
when his empty words no longer
can seduce anything more than
his own lies.
Third Place
I am Very Popular
Bobby Geans
I am just a leaf,
I have fallen from a popular tree
Way up high
I am in the Autumn of my life,
It’s time to say goodbye
I am a beautiful yellow gold
And designed like a heart
It’s so sad that we have to part
I have no fear,
And I have no pain.
I have enjoyed the sunshine,
And the sweet smell of summer rain.
Let me down easy Lord,
I want to see the sunset.
There is an Earth Angel,
In a flower bed with a rake in her hand.
Yes, God does have a plan.
