Fremont Area District Library

It is only a piece of wood.
On the beach, after the storm,
Twelve inches high and resembling,
In some ways, a man.
My son calls it GI Joe
And would have it kill other driftwood.
He holds it to his ear
Expecting the roar of battles.
My wife, heavy with child,
Sees it as a knight, square-shouldered,
Larger than herself. And I
For my own reasons, know it
To be a sailor,
Life-sized.

Who would not turn wooden,
The sea endlessly soft around him,
Hands no longer able to claw
The swollen green horizon?
Who would not shrink
Before the rollers surging
Over the puny breakwater
of his teeth?
Who would not be mute,
Feeling his squirming soul
Begin to scream
The siren's song of stillness?

Sea whispers behind,
The embrace of the undertow before,
Who would not have hurled him
Back into the ambiguous womb?

While walking down a dark and quiet road
I see stars shining brightly overhead
Time also wanders slowly down this road
My barefeet find do smooth and rough to tread
Nearby the ocean's rolling rythmic roar
Completes the peace and harmony I feel
Reality, problems I had before,
All fade away till nothing seems quite real
Oh, I could walk forever thru the night
With head up gazing at the stars above
To me, there are dispersed among their light
--While gone are good and bad, and hate and love--
The rays of unity restoring whole
So short a time my long divided soul

"An Unknown Peace" by Bonnie Langer

I knelt in the church and prayed for peace
I attended the meeting, we prayed for peace
The young man's name was read aloud
The rain fell from a distant cloud

I attended the meeting, we prayed for peace
We could not fathom the suffering and pain
The young man's name was read aloud
His family's grief was like a shroud

We could not fathom the suffering and pain
Who could know the anguish they feel?
The family's grief was like a shroud
Which hangs over a silent world

Who could know the anguish they feel?
The ache, the emptiness of loss
Which hangs over a silent world
A truth that some cannot accept

The ache, the emptiness of loss
The young man's name was read aloud
A truth that some cannot accept
I knelt in the church and prayed for peace

2007 Poetry Contest Winners - Adult

Honorable Mentions