
Poetry Contest 2023
22nd Annual (2023) GCC Student Poetry Contest Winners
Thank you to The Office of Student Engagement and Inclusion for generously providing prizes. Special thank you to the Judging Committee: Doreen Bortle, Loy Gross, Jessica Hibbard, Nicki Lerczak, and Mary-Clare Tasber. Winners will be honored at the college-wide Student Celebration of Excellence on Tuesday, May 9. Congratulations to this year’s winners!
Awards:
Best Body of Work: Shalom Bloodman for If Love is Fire, Change is Wind; She Loved Me, I Loved Her Sometimes; and Boggy Peak: Antigua
First Prize: Lydia R. Hofmann for Inspiration
Second Prize: Hannah Camiolo for Flipped
Third Prize: Irelyn Curry Arachnids Can Play House
If Love is Fire, Change is Wind; She Loved Me, I Loved Her Sometimes; and Boggy Peak: Antigua by Shalom Bloodman
If Love is Fire, Change is Wind
If love is fire, change is wind.
Subtle and slow, it creeps,
As smoke emerges from the pit,
A pool of flames set near your feet.
You hope and pray the flames will last,
You laugh, converse, enjoy the night.
A love like this has come to past,
Unaware of impending fright.
If love is fire, change is wind,
Blowing heavy, blowing hard.
The flames we knew are now thinned,
As we face the winds that scarred.
We hold on tight and try to weather
The gusts that threaten to extinguish forever.
Our love that once burned bright and true,
Now flickers weakly, a painful hue.
The storm has passed, the fire grows.
We look into each other’s eyes
And see the fire within our souls.
Subtle and slow, our flames rise.
With heart ablaze for her or him,
Hold them close and keep them warm.
If love is fire, change is wind,
Let love light shine through windy storm.
She Loved Me, I Loved Her Sometimes
She loved me, and I loved her sometimes.
Of course, she wouldn’t know.
My face says I’d rather be elsewhere,
My heart screams I love it here.
She loved me, and I loved her sometimes.
Gas lighting starts a fire within,
Not of anger, but passion;
A fire that situates in her heart.
She loved me, and I loved her sometimes.
Is it weird that if she came and sat near,
Her presence would be embraced?
Of course, just in my mind.