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2011 SARAH MOOK
POETRY PRIZE RESULTS

Dear Participants,

Thank you for entering the Sarah Mook Poetry Contest. We were happy to receive nearly 2000 poems from poets in more than a dozen states. It was my pleasure to read each of the poems before passing them along to the final judge, Marie Kane, Bucks County Poet Laureate 2006 and former high school English and Creative Writing teacher. She found all of the final entries to be extremely close this year. After reading, rereading, reading out loud, and reading again, she still had difficulties placing the top three winners. All of the poems are engaging, imaginative, and skilled; she enjoyed reading them and especially commenting on the top three. Congratulations to all the entrants -- what a super job. Keep writing poetry!

Congratulations also to the teachers, parents, and mentors who provide much-needed encouragement and much-deserved praise to all of the young writers.

Thank you, Marie, for your careful and generous consideration of each of the finalist poems. Award letters to each winner will include Mrs. Kane's detailed and praiseful explications of their winning poem. Each First Place winner will receive a cash prize of $100, Second Place $50, Third Place $25.

click on the names to read the poems
(below each poem includes comments from Judge Marie Kane):

GRADES K-2

First Place:
Gabrielle Kaplan
"Rain"
Broomall, PA

Second Place:
Caterina Cappelli
"The Sloth"
Sarasota, FL

Third Place:
Natalie Fedde
"My Walk With Nature"
Shawnee, KS

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GRADES 3-5

First Place:
Dana Herman
"It Is The World Re-flipped"
Philadelphia, PA

Second Place:
Henry Prantis
"Beets and Onions"
East Sandwich, MA

Third Place:
Nathan Lee
"Writing My Name In Korean"
Wallingford, PA
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GRADES 6-8

First Place:
Ingrid Kinevich
"I Was 10"
Strafford, NH

Second Place:
Skye Metzner
"Beautiful Tears"
Hyndman, PA

Third Place:
Payton Emerick
"Gone"
Hyndman, PA

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GRADES 9-12

First Place:
Raven Hogue
"Scaffolding"
Oak Park, IL

Second Place:
Christian Robinson
"Ode to the Spanish Language"
Oak Park, IL

Third Place:
Sherry Reuter
"Meda Se"
Oak Park, IL

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Thanks to the generosity of those who sent donations a contribution of $430 was made in Sarah's name to Smile Train, a charity that provides free cleft surgery for millions of poor children in developing countries.

Thank you for helping to honor Sarah and her gift of poetry. We wish you continued success in your writing and in all you do. Please enter again next year. Have a safe and happy summer!

Sincerely,
David Mook and Family
davidmook@aol.com

PAST CONTEST WINNERS :   2010



Each Leaf Poems by Sarah Mook and David Mook

$10 Soft Cover,
$20 Hard Cover
Includes shipping and handling.

Quantity discounts available for educational use. Email: davidmook@aol.com

EACH LEAF
Poems by Sarah Mook and David Mook

Sarah Gail Mook was a student in the third grade at Buckingham Friends School in Lahaska, PA when she died suddenly on December 14, 1995. Sarah began writing poems in kindergarten. Reading Sarah's poems over and over during the months following her death inspired her father, David, to begin writing poetry. For David, "poetry is a gift from Sarah, a blessing." EACH LEAF is a celebration of Sarah's life, her gifts, and also embodies a journey through grief into healing and spiritual growth.

"A beautiful book that left me both grieving and rejoicing - a wonderful tribute to Sarah, and to poetry and to life." Christopher Bursk

"Heartfelt, heartbreaking and extraordinarily life-affirming in its ability to confront life/death, love/loss, belief. It tackles, in a remarkable way, the question: how does one go on living in the face of such grief and sorrow?" Cheryl Baldi

EACH LEAF also contains an essay about father and daughter fishing on the Delaware River. "Fishing" was selected as a notable essay in the Best American Essays -2000.

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Sarah Mook

I PLAY A GAME WITH MY DAD
by Sarah Mook (1st Grade)

We have a piece of paper
with words on it.
Then we copy one word
off it, then another,
all silly
like bees with fish wings
or this ivy stick
with books hanging off it
instead of leaves.

When we play this game
I am as happy as a dolphin
singing a song.

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