For Immediate Release
April 20, 2001
Poetry Contest Winners Announced
In celebration of April as National Poetry Month, the Cumberland County Public Library & Information Center sponsored a Teen Poetry Contest open to all Cumberland County middle and high school students.
Josh Wiley, a student at Spring Lake Middle School, was named the winner in the middle school category for his poem entitled Unpredictability. Genessa Jagdeo, student at Seventy–First High School, won the high school category for her poem It's Not Called…
Each winner will receive a $20.00 gift certificate to Cross Creek Mall and their entries will be read at the Teen Talent Showcase to be held at the Headquarters Library on Friday, April 27 at 7:00 pm.
For more information, contact Amanda Crabtree, Public Information Coordinator, by phone at (910) 483-1580 ext. 119 or by email at acrabtre@cumberland.lib.nc.us
By Joshua Wiley By Genessa Jagdeo
In this atmosphere,
There are many feelings
But mostly fear.
In the back of everyone’s mind
They wonder…
Will they make it home the next hour?
I wonder…
Will I live to see another day?
We love to ask,
But the answer remains
Unknown.
I wonder if God will let me live to tell stories
To my grandchildren.
But the next story…may be my obituary in the paper.
I call it Unpredictability.
You never see it coming.
If you do…
You have no ability to stop it.
We are kicked, beaten, raped, and molested.
We are discarded, disregarded,
Sneered at, jeered at, fooled, tricked, and foiled.
We are seen as devils and harlots, beasts and whores
Placed in spaces of rotting stenched thought.
We have fought, slaved, and laboured.
We have dreamed, wondered, and fantasized.
We have struggled, moved, taken less.
We have been lonely, never alone, always together.
We have grieved, suffered, shot down, gunned down
We have been everything…except truly great,
And yet you see us as the greatest foundation
Of your lives.
Or you should!
For if IT weren’t here,
WE weren’t here,
YOU would starve, die, and struggle.
YOU would fight, labor and take less.
YOU would not dream, wonder or fantasize.
Because we are the greatest.
We, your sistas, your wives,
And the earth you stand upon is not called
Father.