• By Don Dwiggins
• Posted Monday, April 25, 2011

OTS Poem Contest Winners Announced

In its 3rd year of collaboration, FCPL’s On The Same Poem project has worked with Forsyth County public and private school teachers to hold a poetry contest for young people in the 6th through 12th grades. Teachers throughout the county expressed great interest in the poem, “Audubon’s Flute,” selected for this year’s On The Same Poem community read. Several teachers taught the poetic form of the poem, the pantoum. Our partnership was well-received by these teachers and over 300 poems were submitted to the poetry contest.

The winners of the contest received Barnes & Noble gift cards provided by Winston Salem Writers, copies of The Strange Attractor, Robert Morgan’s poetry collection containing his “Audubon’s Flute”, and lunch with Robert Morgan, lunches provided by Whole Foods Winston Salem.

Here is a list of this year’s winning selections along with a link to their poems.

1. 1st Place Middle School: "Old Glory" by Sarah Templeton, 6th grade Hanes Middle, Ms. Bullock
2. 2nd Place Middle School: “Kristopolis” by Chris Oldham, 6th grade Hanes Middle, Ms. Bullock
3. 3rd Place Middle School: “Nature’s Symphony” by Sarah Kelly, 8th grade Thomas Jefferson Middle, Ms. Neiniger
4. 1st Place High School: “Discontinued” by Tumi Mabaso, 10th grade, Atkins High, Ms. Johnson
5. 2nd Place High School: “Sermon in Urbspeak” by Jeremy Sexton, 10th grade, R. J. Reynolds High
6. 3rd Place High School: “Teach Me” by Shannon Smith, 12th grade, Carver High, Ms. Lyons