ABQ RIDE Announces Winners of Poetry on the Bus Contest
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ABQ RIDE Announces Winners of Poetry on the Bus Contest
A public reception was held to announce the winners of ABQ RIDE's first Poetry on the Bus contest.
ABQ RIDE Director Greg Payne with the Winners of this years Poetry on the Bus.
Albuquerque - The Goal of Poetry on the Bus is to make riding the bus a meaningful part of our lives. On August 28, 2008 many shared in this idea by attending the Poetry on the Bus Exhibition Reception. Mayor Martin Chávez has been an advocate of Poetry on the Bus. "It is truly amazing to see the talent and amount of interest that this poetry contest has generated," said Mayor Martin Chávez.
A packed house of over 230 people celebrated the Poetry on the Bus Exhibition Gallery opening. Poets from the greater Albuquerque area came together in a fever pitch to see who had won the contest. Attendees enjoyed exceptional graphics that accompanied the winning / honorable mention poems. Those in attendance were honored with a gorgeous book depicting the art show.
This event was made possible with the help of our valued sponsors:
Duke City Fix, Sadie's of New Mexico, 100 Gold Lofts, City of Albuquerque / Bernalillio County Library System, Coffee for your Office, LLC and FedEx Office (Kinko's).
A big thank you to our judges who read over 465 poems.
Shelle Sanchez National Hispanic Cultural Center
Keith Perry ABQ RIDE
Patricia Steindler Retired Educator
Patrick Houlihan Poetry Professor, CNM
The winners and their poems are:
Youth
First Place Sophie Kelly Lavender Blue
Second Place Gerardo Ramos Tumble Weed Flats
Third Place Madelyn Stroik Night-swimming
Fourth Place Aleyna Donaldson Where is my Train
Adult
First Place Charleen Madill Morphestra
Second Place Ray Reeder Ganado
Third Place Elaine Schwartz Breath
Fourth Place Amanda Kooser Railroad to Central
Thank you Albuquerque for supporting and always improving ABQ RIDE.
In the aftershock of a monsoon
Central Avenue wavers.
A mule-drawn streetcar
skitters through the steam.
Men shout from saloons
and women lift their dresses
above the mud of Railroad Avenue.
Rain shimmers against their shoulders
as they fade into the dusk.
Breath arrives with little fanfare
Slips softly under my awareness
Evades curious nostrils
Flows unnoticed through my throat
Plunges deep into my lungs
Where her silken fingers feed hungry blood vessels
Silently, she reverses course,
Sneaks out through oblivious lips.
Op art before op art had a name,
geometric forms stacked,
spaced, balanced
in red, black, white,
tan, brown and gray,
zigzag up,
down,
across
the warp and woof,
guided and disciplined
by the creative hand and eye
of a Navajo woman
transferring her dreams
to woolen reality.
The horner and the drummist tootlelood a minidoo
Oompa-paddle rat-a-tattle drummed the tympanoo.
The woody-winds and brass-a-lins showed off their tongue-a-diddles
Bass-a-los with pony bows out-played the harper-fiddles
And in the lead, dressed all in tweed, the batist waved haloo.
Thunder and Crack.
Caboom. Shallack.
Rumble and Rain,
Where is my train?
Soaked and Shocked.
Cold and Mocked.
I hate the rain,
I love my train.
I see the beauty of the world,
All in the impatience for my train
Soaked and wet, how I wait for my train.
star-apple hearts
beat in the water
night in July
percussivity
in shared breaths and
blurry fingernail moons
underwater
a song echoes
over green-eyed splashes
laughing,
i dive beside you
i feel the sun's night-breathing
you touch my ankle
angelfish fingers
leave stars blooming under skin
so this is love.
The darkness is thick, the campfire burns low
And the moon overhead does not crease its pale glow
On a stomach of cornbread we sit and we chat
As the coyotes how, hello tumble weed flats
The plateau behind us, the weekds blowing by
Are all part of this flat and, below the inky sky
Lavender Blue
skies like heaven
envelope me
Lavender Blue
seamlessly smooth
like laying on a cloud
Lavender Blue
Rays of gold gently lapping by my sides
at night while I soundly sleep
Lavender Blue
laughter dances in the air
while you, there, are waiting for me