Sidewalk Poetry Contest Winners Announced
After receiving more than 150 entries, the winners of the Takoma Park Sidewalk Poetry Contest have been selected, including 10 children and 10 adults ranging from 6 years old to seniors. The winners will receive a $100 award and a chance to have their original poems stamped into a local sidewalk in the contest organized by the City of Takoma Park’s Arts and Humanities Division.
“We were impressed by the diverse breadth of poetry displaying the creativity, intellect, and whimsy of so many Takoma Park residents,” Arts and Humanities Coordinator Brendan Smith said. “This is a fun public art project which brings poetry to the streets and under people’s feet. We hope the poems will provide a laugh or a moment of reflection as people walk around town.”
Local residents could submit one or two poems in English or Spanish. The selection committee included Takoma Park Poet Laureate Kathleen O’Toole and local poets Bernardine Watson and Vladimir Monge.
Seven poems have been stamped so far and more poems will be stamped in the spring of 2022 when sidewalk work begins again.
A new online map provides a looping 4.2-mile walking or biking route which connects the seven sidewalk poems located across Takoma Park.
Child/Teen Winners
Ari Bernstein -10 years old
From the sky to the earth
and the nature in between
you can see the beauty
in which it is woven
and the space you may weave
Sofia Dalanda Crandall -14 years old
Poetry is not a chair
Until you eat it
From a freshly shined plate
In a rickety old bus
On a blanket of snow
Edwige Ghembesalu -16 years old
sunshine honeydew
drip drops from the sky
and we shimmy in the rain
by the creek and on the bridge
slippin cause we mean to
Graham Gould -8 years old
Joy is what I feel within
It burns right through my thin tan skin
Those I love I share my gift
You just need a hopeful lift
Hector Herrera -6 years old
People love
people hug
the love is strong from above
Ash Hewchuck -15 years old
Song of moon, I take your hand
In dusk of sweet July night
Dappled thoughts and silver emotions
We’ll dance until first light
Nala Miller -7 years old
Little green ball in the tree
Bouncing and rolling free
Off the branch in the grass
Down the hill that’s all we see.
Maeve Monahan -11 years old
Takoma
Instead of a park
It’s more like a sea
Flowing from every
Green leafy tree
Ida Shaeffer-Allen -9 years old
Carving out rock
Cutting through land
Soft tender touch
Transforms more than seen.
Aissatou Thiam -7 years old
Six Legs
Tiny Ants
Don’t crawl up my pants!
Adult Winners
Sally Brucker
So here is the thing
not getting any younger
flowers
still budding
Chris Carson
If I had my way,
love and money would grow
All over the ground,
Like wild strawberries.
Colleen Cordes
Late light shines
through dusk dark pines.
Everywhere silence,
everywhere song.
Sing, silence, sing.
David Alberto Fernandez
(Spanish poem with English translation)
Las palabras que importan
no se imprimen,
ni están talladas o estampadas
Arden en nuestros corazones
The words that matter
are not printed,
carved or stamped
They blaze in our hearts
Rosemary Ferreira
If there is one thing I hold constant,
it is that I belong to this city
as much as it belongs to me.
Veronica Jackson
What will you have today?
I would like tomorrow
Ok that will cost you a day
Just give me yesterday
Sorry no refunds
Emily Kombe
You call it nappy,
I call it being able to breathe
for the first time
through my curls
Samantha Magrath
my footsteps sound
on hard surfaces
crisp and regular as a dealer
laying down card after card
on the city’s table
Maja Tokic
long ago
they walked this road
cold wind chilling their bones
over the ground hard as stone
long ago
Richard Weil
Know, that a valley,
Is a mountain resting
