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Posts Tagged ‘NC Poets’

Saturday Share – Bradley Strahan

Posted in family, tagged , , , , , , on May 23, 2026| 4 Comments »

The journey is . . .

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Saturday morning readers share:
Bradley Strahan
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To My Father, as He Should Be in Paradise
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Surely there’s a baseball diamond there
where you could be the pitcher you were meant to be.
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And Marilyn, not Mom, must be on your arm,
sexy as the picture you kept on your shop wall.
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There would be beaches with ice cream stands
and real hot dogs with gobs of mustard leaking out.
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No bills you can’t pay, no demands you can’t meet . . . .
You’d have your ’55 two-tone Chevy back, bright as new.
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Oh, and that odd sense of humor would have those angels
rolling in heavenly aisles at your mangled puns.
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There’d be tons of swinging there, and not just chariots:
Benny’s boys and Glen and Tommy too, all playing just for you.
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Funny, I never saw you dance but I know you could.
Cut a rug Dad! And those pennies from heaven are all yours too.
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B.R. Strahan
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Bradley R. Strahan is best known to North Carolina writers and readers as the long time editor and publisher of the poetry journal Visions International. His creative influence, however, spans continents, with a worldwide following for his work since 1976. His publications include several books of poetry and over 500 poems in journals in North America, the UK, Ireland, Belgium, and Korea. He has been anthologized in numerous collections and translated into French, Spanish, Dutch, Serbian, Macedonian, Korean, etc.. He has lectured and read his work in America, Europe and Asia; is a former Fulbright Professor of Poetry & American Culture; taught poetry at Georgetown University; for over 20 years sponsored a series of international poetry readings at Rock Creek Gallery in DC and other venues; and in 2001 replaced John Ashbery as the American poet at the “Literaire Podia Amsterdam” in Holland.
NOTE: Brad has a few copies left of his book “A Parting Glass.” See the link below from 2022 for sample poems. If you would like a copy contact him at brs.poetry@gmail.com; $5 to cover postage and a bit of the printing.
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Additional poetry by Brad Strahan at Verse and Image:
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VISIONS INTERNATIONAL featured at Verse and Image:
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Cookie & Wilson

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Thank you for visiting Verse and Image:
. . . . . every Friday I present one or two poems I’ve read this week that particularly speak to me;
. . . . . Saturdays I present one or two poems submitted by YOU, my readers.
 . 
If you would like to offer a poem for consideration, either by a favorite author or your own work, please view these GUIDELINES for Saturday Readers Share:
 . 
 . 
If you would like to receive an email each time a post appears, please SUBSCRIBE to Verse and Image using the button on the Home Page.
 . 
If you have a hard time finding the SUBSCRIBE button on this WordPress site, you can send me your email address and I will add you to the subscriber list. Send your request to
 . 
COMMENTS@GRIFFINPOETRY.COM
 . 
Thanks again for joining the conversation.
 . 
– Bill
 . 
Doughton Park Tree -- 5/1/2021
 . 

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NC Poetry Society Awards – Students

Posted in Imagery, tagged , , , , , on May 22, 2026| 2 Comments »

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A sampling of winning poems by Sebastian Gyovai, Liz Maceda, 
Sasha Smith,  Akshita Gupta, Sophie Lankarani
May 16, 2026 at Weymouth Center
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An Immigrant’s View
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America, can I ring the Taco Bell?
America, my boots are giving me blisters.
America, do buffalos really have wings?
America, I need water, my throat is dry.
America, my phone says it’s an Apple, but it tastes like metal.
America, why are there witches and zombies at my door?
America, can Red Bull give me wings so I can fly back to my country?
America, who is All State and why are their hands so big?
America, can you dry the tears in my eyes?
America, the Capital One wants to see my wallet,
but America, there’s not much to see.
America, give me a home.
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Sebastian Gyovai
First Place, Travis Tuck Jordan Award. Sebastian is a 5th grader at The Raleigh School, Raleigh, NC.
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Becoming
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I am learning the language of mirrors,
How to look at myself without asking permission to exist,
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The hallway light flickers, and for a second
I am made of seconds, I am everything people say I am.
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But shadows move when the light changes.
So do I.
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I carry questions in my pockets, folded like notes I never pass.
Who am I when no one is watching?
Who will I be when I stop pretending?
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Some days, I speak in whispers.
Other days, my silence is louder
than the room I walk into.
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I am becoming
Someone who takes up space.
Someone who doesn’t apologize for the shape of their voice.
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One day,
I will step out of the echo of others’ words
and answer with my own.
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Liz Maceda
Second Place, Mary Chilton Award. Liz is a 9th grader at Carrboro High School, Carrboro, NC.
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Math
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I tire of this boring math
Of which to me seems really hath
No purpose nor beauty in my life
Yet fills long hours with strife
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But when I try to advocate
They say “you’ll need this to create
The future of which you dream”
It only makes me want to scream
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I dream not of complex equations
Nor of mathematical vocations
Though you may call it frivolity
I prefer an essay to an inequality
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Long have I done well in school
It seems to me it should be cool
If I don’t take a little break
I’ll throw this laptop in a lake
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A grade is just a useless number
Worry about trees being cut for lumber
I should think it’s more relevant
To learn how to save the elephant
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Sasha Smith
Honorable Mention, Mary Chilton Award. Sasha is an 8th graders at R.D. and Euzelle Smith Middle School, Chapel Hill, NC.
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Blue Mother
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She glows in the rising sun
Her waves crashing down
Cradling her children
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No matter how big or small
She holds them all
Close to her heart
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But when the blue is hidden
Behind all the trash
It gives me pause
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Seeing the life
The beauty
Slowly drain from her
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All the death and blackness
Surrounding her
Breaks something in my heart
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But we can change
We can be good
We can show her the beauty of us
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We can save the life
Save us
Save our mother
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And I know
When we choose this
The Blue Mother will forgive us all
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Akshita Gupta
Third Place, Joan Scott Memorial Environment Award. Kash is an 8th grader at Young Writers’ Institute, Cary, NC.
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Dear Iran After Wolpe
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Even though I only once traced your streets with my own feet,
you wandered into my dreams anyway,
sliding in through my grandmother’s stories,
drifting out of the steam of her afternoon tea, searching for a place to land.
You slipped in from the clatter of spoons
against crystal tea glasses,
from the rustle of pistachios in a bowl,
from the smell of warm barbari bread.
You crawled across the living room rug
with its deep red blossoms, and settled in the hollow of my throat
like an unfinished sentence.
I thought you were gold, Tehran,
and pomegranate-red, bursting with juice,
spice merchants crushing saffron threads between their fingertips,
the air thick with sumac and smoke
and the hum of bargaining voices.
I dream of you, Tehran, I dream
every night with the ache of someone trying to read
a language she was never taught.
I search for you in the slope of my nose, the olive of my skin.
But I cannot come to you.
You stay sealed behind headlines and rumors,
across news screens and phone calls,
behind the constant warning, “Not now. It’s not safe.”
And so you live inside me instead
a place I carry like a hidden heirloom
glimmering in the dark.
A city I cannot visit but that pulls at me anyway, calling my name
like a prayer in a language I don’t understand
but somehow already know.
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Sophie Lankarani
First Place, The Sherry Pruitt Award. Sophie is a Senior at The Asheville School, Asheville, NC
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After the NC Poetry Society contestants read their winning poems, members of The Poetic Justice League shared readings by special request. These student poets from Carrboro High School are led by their creative writing instructor Raquel Harris. The flow of inspiration they bring is electric!
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Gemella Marey

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Ever Harris

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Naomi Hirsch

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Isabel “Liz” Carty

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The North Carolina Poetry Society conducts five contest for students each year. The submission period opens on November 1, with a deadline of January 31. Winners are invited to attend and read their poem at Sam Ragan Awards Day at Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities (Southern Pines) in May. Check HERE for guidelines and details.
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Winning poems are published in the anthology Pinesong. If you would like to purchase a copy ($10), or if you are a NCPS member and would like to request your complimentary copy, please contact Membership Vice President Joan Barasovska: msjoan9@gmail.com.

The NCPS Student Contests are:

The Travis Tuck Jordan Award for students in Grades 3 – 5.

Endowed by Dorothy and Oscar Pederson
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The Joan Scott Memorial Award for poems about the environment, students in Grades 5 – 9.
Endowed by contributions in memory of Joan Scott and by the Board of the NC Poetry Society.
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The Mary Chilton Award for students in Grades 6 – 9.
Sponsored by Tori Reynolds
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The Sherry Pruitt Award for students in Grades 10 – 12
Endowed by Gail Peck
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The Undergraduate Award for students attending a North Carolina college or university or whose parents or guardians live in the state of North Carolina .
Endowed by the Judith C. Beale Bequest.
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And THANK YOU especially to all the teachers and parents who encourage these young poets to continue to contemplate and create!
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Thank you for visiting Verse and Image:
. . . . . every Friday I present one or two poems I’ve read this week that particularly speak to me;
. . . . . some Saturdays I present one or two poems submitted by YOU, my readers.
 . 
If you would like to offer a poem for consideration, either by a favorite author or your own work, please view these GUIDELINES for Saturday Readers Share:
 . 
 . 
If you would like to receive an email each time a post appears, please SUBSCRIBE to Verse and Image using the button on the Home Page.
 . 
If you have a hard time finding the SUBSCRIBE button on this WordPress site, you can send me your email address and I will add you to the subscriber list. Send your request to
 . 
COMMENTS@GRIFFINPOETRY.COM
 . 
Thanks again for joining the conversation.
 . 
– Bill
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Poetry and Earth – Coastal

Posted in Ecopoetry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on May 8, 2026| Leave a Comment »

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[ poems by West Carteret High School Students Aurora Goodyear,
Bryana Fessler, Xristos, M., Yaritza Lopez-Castro, 
and their science teacher Jessi Waugh ]
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Back Field Ecosystem
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The sun sits high at 8:30,
Warming the dark, quiet soil.
Everything feels just right,
Like the field is slowly waking up.
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A hawk glides across the sky,
Silent but watching everything below.
A butterfly drifts without a path,
While a ladybug crawls, small but bright.
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Leaf litter crunches underfoot,
Pinecones rest, sharp and still.
Green shrubs fill the space with life,
Hiding more than you can see at first.
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Everything here has a place,
From the ground to the open air.
It may not look simple from far away,
But up close, it’s full of life.
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Aurora Goodyear
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Let us probe the silent places. Let us seek what luck betides us. There’s a whisper on the night-wind, there’s a star agleam too. And the Wild is calling, calling – let us go.
— Robert Service, Call of the Wild
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Out in the Sun
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In the sun I lay so bright
Waiting patiently for the night.
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The birds sing
The flowers dance,
Right beside me
Lay the ants
Bringing food,
To their colony below
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And then December comes
The snow, powdery white
Covering the plain
I wonder, do these creatures
Have a name?
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Or are these creatures just
Like me, figuring out where
And who they want to be.
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Bryana Fessler
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Underlying the beauty of the spectacle there is meaning and significance. It is the elusiveness of that meaning that haunts us, that sends us again and again into the natural world where the key to the riddle is hidden. 
— Rachel Carson
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Bees
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They say a bumblebee is incapable of flight.
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Its tiny wings cannot produce enough lift
to fly and its fat body only drags it down.
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Other creatures such as butterflies
and flies have the lift for flight while bees
do not.
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That is because bumblebees defy
the laws of aviation, flying anyways.
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Xristos, M.
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Aerodynamically the bumble bee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn’t know it, so it goes on flying anyway.
— Mary Kay Ash
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The Tree
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The tree – its stature,
its branches –
the purest emerald
of the path –
unveiling its magic
before my eyes.
What a beautiful and sweet song!
The birds of the path
tweet within your heart.
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Yaritza Lopez-Castro
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Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a song bird will come. 
— Chinese proverb
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Baby Snapper, West Carteret High School

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Photos by Jessi Waugh

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The World in a Grain of Sand
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These feet have never left North America
have crossed fewer than fifty meridians
they remain on long familiar land
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But the mind travels farther than the body roams
I’ve seen the world in a grain of sand
scanned the beaches of Normandy and Spain
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My co-teacher exchanged local sand
with pen pals via snail mail
assembled an unrivaled collection
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When he shared his horde
I poured each vial into a petri dish
sealed the sides, labeled with location
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Saudi Arabia, bleach white
New Zealand, volcanic black
Dominican Republic, fine as dust
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I have seen Scotland’s weathered highlands
studied stones cast by the gods of Mt. Olympus
sifted silt gleaned from Utah’s red lakes
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These are the Florida Keys
can you feel the sea breeze
see the coral ground to brilliant snow
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For twenty years I’ve yearned
to walk the coast of County Cork
for now, I magnify its mythic grains and dream
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Jessi Waugh
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The back soccer field continues to be a great place for the Biodiversity Lab. This year, we found two baby snapping turtles, a baby alligator, and the salamander in this area. A student returned the snapping turtle to the creek beside the field. Classes are currently designing a sign for this freshwater creek. The winning sign design will be made into a metal sign by a local graphic design company, thanks to a grant. 
— Jessi
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❁✾✿
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West Carteret High School is in Morehead City, North Carolina, on the Atlantic coast of the southeastern USA. It is a public 9-12th grade high school, with about 1100 students. Approximately 40% of students are economically disadvantaged. Jessi Waugh teaches Earth and Environmental Science, since 2000 a required course for graduation. She also teaches Biology and Marine Science as needed, and has been a teacher for 14 years. Her students are all 9th & 10th grade, ages 14-16. The poems shared here are from both the honors and standard classes. Jessi holds a Master’s in Teaching Secondary Science and an undergraduate Biology degree and tells me,  I like teaching this course and age group; it’s my niche.
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Thanks always to my outdoor companion Mike Barnett, who plies me with a continuous treasure of thoughtful quotations about nature, science, wonder, and discovery.
 . 
And Thank you for visiting Verse and Image:
. . . . . every Friday I present poems I’ve read this week that particularly speak to me;
. . . . . some Saturdays I present one or two poems submitted by YOU, my readers.
 . 
If you would like to offer a poem for consideration, either by a favorite author or your own work, please view these GUIDELINES for Saturday Readers Share:
 . 
 . 
If you would like to receive an email each time a post appears, please SUBSCRIBE to Verse and Image using the button on the Home Page.
 . 
If you have a hard time finding the SUBSCRIBE button on this WordPress site, you can send me your email address and I will add you to the subscriber list. Send your request to
 . 
COMMENTS@GRIFFINPOETRY.COM
 . 
Thanks again for joining the conversation. . 
– Bill
 . 
IMG_0880, tree
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