The six judges had a tough time choosing the best from among the 341 entries – nearly 100 more than last year – in the Friends of the Pennsauken Free Public Library’s 15th annual Mary W. Levin Poetry Contest. Students from six Pennsauken schools participated, along with several home-schooled poets and a baker’s dozen of adult entries rounding out the pack. Not only were the poems themselves creative, but equally so were the “vehicles” they came on: literally all sizes and shapes ranging from 5” x 6” scrap paper to an 8” construction paper fir tree. Several even came with accompanying drawings on extra-large 11” x 17” sheets!

The first and second place winners for the shape poem category for the Primary Level (K-1) are Yaira Gomez-Torres with “Ice Crystal” and Marissa Gonzalez with “Spaghetti.” For the word poem category for the Primary Level, the first and second place winners are Fatimah Covington for “Trash” and Chloe Burgos for “Mom and Aunt Angie.”

Jada Sayers with “All About Grey,” Aaron Wade with “Life as a Game,” and Andre Pratt with “My Room” placed first, second and third in the Elementary Grades Level (2-4) with their serious poems. In the amusing category, Amina Dyer’s “Green I’s,” Angelina Thach with “The Chalk,” and Angel Vazquez with “Too Hot” finished the Elementary Grades Level.

Angela Nguyen and Miriam Chaplin came in first and second in the serious category for their poems “And So I Did” and “Souls,” while Kalib Pagan and Princess Ellis won the same honors in the amusing category with “Fantastic Fabulous French Toast” and “Awesome Atlantic City” for Elementary Grades Level (5-8).

Rounding out the evening is our High School Category winner, Arriea Wilson, for “Think.” Finally, our Adult Category winner, Diane A. Smith, won with her poem, “Endangered Generation.”

The Friends of the Pennsauken Free Public Library would like to thank the wonderful volunteers who helped judge the submissions. And let’s not forget the special awards presenter for the evening, Diane Joyce, principal of Baldwin and Carson Elementary Schools, who in past years has kept things moving along smoothly, even when the microphone decided to go mute or when some of the poets contracted a bad case of stage fright – and also went mute!

The Friends are already looking forward to next year’s batch of entries for the 16th annual Mary W. Levin Poetry Contest, and hope that the many poetic residents of Pennsauken and Merchantville are as well.