Local teen wins honorable mentions in adult poetry and art competition

Amanda Webster is a 14-year-old 8th grader at Jacobsen Middle School in Tehachapi. She has been an avid reader since shortly after she learned to read. You won’t often find her without a book or a Kindle in her hand. She has always loved to create things. When she was little, she made many of her own toys out of recycled objects and scraps. Now words are her scraps, and she puts them together to express what’s in her soul.

When she’s not reading or writing, you can find her doing homework, at a Girl Scout meeting with her friends, at a church activity, performing at the Beekay Theater (she’ll be in Princess K.I.M. in May), or playing peek-a-boo with her baby brother.

Amanda found out about about the Virgin Valley Art Gallery Artists and Poets exhibit through her grandparents, who live in Mesquite, Nevada, where the gallery is located. Poets are invited to submit work, which artists then choose from to create a work of art that represents the poem. There are many more poets than artists, so just to have a poem chosen is an honor. Three of Amanda’s poems were chosen by artists, and two of their combined entries received honorable mention awards. The exhibit is geared towards adult artists and poets, it’s not a youth competition.

Here are the poems that were selected:

Greed

Be cautious, if you delve too deep,

you might find what lies beneath

A darkness that will consume all,

a hatred that will take your soul,

a monster that is feared by all,

unhappiness that marks your call,

be careful if you delve too deep

You will find him,

there beneath.

She wrote the poem “Greed” during Writer’s Club with Ms. Brocklesby during lunchtime at school. It was close to Halloween, and the prompt the students were given was to write a poem about a monster.

Hope

It’s a funny thing really,

It comes in, in a flash of

golden light,

then leaves, rendering the world dark

But just when you think hope is truly lost,

it fades in,

as gentle as a sunrise,

for, without the dark parts,

How would we learn and grow?

How would we know how to trust?

To be kind?

To love?

Because,

If you think about it,

we wouldn’t get any rest without

the sun leaving us

to make way for the moon and stars.

Patience

Wait, wait, wait

In a world that goes so fast,

Where thoughts take off like a blast

It’s hard to slow down and take

the scenic road, every now and again

To smell the May Flowers,

After April Showers

When was the last time

You took a look

At what you’ve done?

We should have the patience of

the moon and the sun

Who wait 12 hours

To shine on us

Again