Northeast Texas Community College recently hosted its annual Northeast Texas Poetry Contest. Adriana Rodriguez won the student category ($400) and long-term winner Angela Wylie took top honors ($200) in the adult category.
Rodriguez, a sophomore Presidential Scholar from Mount Pleasant, also won third-place ($200) last year for her lyric, ?After a Storm.?†She is currently also one of 30 finalists this year for the National Collegiate Honors Council?s ?Student of the Year.?† Wylie, a Winnsboro teacher, also has compiled an enviable rÈsumÈ. Over ten years competing in the adult category, she has compiled an amazing record, earning her the sobriquet, ?Poet Laureate of Northeast Texas.?† Wylie has won this same contest in 2009, 2011, 2015, 2016, and 2017.
?Both winners explored oft-neglected aspects of regional serenity--the liberation from distraction, the roads that measure distance in generations, the melodies of the wind, and the lingering histories of abandoned ancestral homes,? Dr. Andrew Yox, NTCC Honors Director, said.
Also in the student division, Chesney Davis won second place ($300) this year with his poem ?East Texas is as Big as it is Little,? after winning first place last year.†Jazmin Garcia ($200), Hannah Dickson ($100), and Morgan Martin ($50), three freshmen members of Honors Northeast, completed the winner?s circle of the 2017 contest.† Garcia detailed the welcoming scenes that drew her from Brownsville to her new Northeast Texas home.† Dickson, in a larger assessment of the state, reminded us that among other things, every Texan should know three phrases: ?Remember the Alamo,? ?Come and Take It,? and ?Don?t Mess with Texas.?† Martin detailed nature?s secret artistry behind the ?pine curtain.?
The reading was held September 8 at the Whatley Foyer and featured the above poets reading their poems, with the exception that Winnsboro High School Principal, David Pinnell, read for Wylie, who was on a trip.† The Reading also featured observations by Dr. Elaine Beason, and Kristin Ellermann, two regional educators.† Beason surprised many with a slideshow of Northeast Texas scenes, showing a photographic gift that evoked the extraordinary in the ordinary.† A world traveler, and former Peace Corps worker, Kristin Ellermann, gave a spirited address noting that while many places in the world became a home to her, home in another sense, does not travel.† Much can become familiar, but memories can imbue what is familiar?such as her native region here--with the defining sense of peace.
For the tenth year, Northeast Texas language professors Chuck Hamilton, Anna Ingram, and Jim Swann served as judges for the contest.† Ingram also chaired the session this year, while Dr. Andrew Yox, Honors Director, introduced the Reading. The winning poems are included below:
†First Place Student
Imagine by Adriana Rodriquez
Imagine:
Sitting in silence, broken only by the nostalgic creaks of the old wooden rocking chair
A warm aroma lingers and finds its way into memories seeming all too familiar
The crisp pages of a worn down book telling you a tale about those three silly bears
And every clouded thought throughout the day all becomes much clearer
Imagine:
Stepping outside to reveal long blades of green dripping with cold morning dew
The sunlight peaking over the vast pasture, enhancing the silhouette of every creature
Trees whistling in the wind, singing their perfectly, improvised melody anew
And walking onto the loose gravel roads, a commonly pleasant country feature
Imagine:
Walking along the old market square, with painted murals along the sides of brick buildings
Old and new faces striding past, expressing gentle eyes and reassuring smiles
A place to gather for others unknown only with the hope of creating new beginnings
And security in the future achieved because the people will embrace any extra trials
Imagine living life in quiet peace without the fear of distraction
Imagine living life where the people constantly display a fervent passion
Imagine living life where warmth and love is easy to find
Imagine living life where nature?s beauty is always inclined
Imagine, Imagine, only, I don?t have to imagine
Because a place like this is what I?ve always known
Because a place like this is what I?ve grown to call home
First Place Adult
The Road by Angela Wylie
As I drive along the road - My road
The road along which I was brought home
As a tiny infant babe
To the old, old ancestral home
Where wind blew through the walls
Surrounded by a vast sea of golden jonquils
Swaying beneath old sycamore trees
I drive past the house that Daddy built
Where wind did not blow through walls
That we moved away from
And left my dog behind
It became my Uncle?s house
Who raised his family there
And kept my dog.
I pass the neighbor?s houses
The fenced pastures where cattle graze
The weathered leaning barns
The overgrown old home-places
Silent remains with empty cellars and
Steadfast old magnolia trees
Home to people no more
Here is my life
Along this winding curving road
A small highway in Northeast Texas
Where generations along it have been reared.
Some left the rural nothingness
For the larger towns and cities
Where neighbor rarely knows neighbor
Yet, many return to the fields and trees
To the golden flowers bending in the breeze
To rusted fence wire and knurled posts
To people who know them the most
To life where things go a little slower
Where roosters crow and black birds fly over
Where neighbor does know neighbor
I pass my grandparents? home-place
A brick home built around the original house
Crape-myrtle trees line the rutted drive
A fig tree stands guard in the middle of the yard
Green pastures surround the house
Where Black Angus cattle did once graze
Living out their lives in peaceful sunlit haze
Where I spent weekends of my childhood
Walking barefooted along sandy cow trails
Avoiding the black gooey plops of dung
Wading in the cool shallow water of the creek
Exploring the old garage and barn
Eating popcorn and sipping stove-top hot coco
Watching TV as the adults talked
Sleeping next to the open window
Listening to night sounds different than home
Cool breeze over sweat dampened skin
No air conditioning here in the old house
The house with the bullet holes in the window screen
Through which Gramps once shot a rabid fox
Patches carefully stitched over the rusted round holes
The road is my life
From birth to childhood to marriage
My children now drive the road,
Knowing every curve and hill
Some of them live there still
Raising their children in the country air
Continuing the winding curving flow of life
Second-Place Student
Chesney Davis
East Texas is as Big as it is Little Vol. II
From the pipe lines that crisscross all over the region
To the oil that supported and helped win a world war
From the interstates that zoom from end to end
To the dirt roads that call this place home
From the huge fancy restaurants that fill you to them brim
To the hole in wall joints that are beyond amazing
East Texas is as big as it is little
From the Big Bass Bonanza craze
To the cork floaters on a pond
From the biggest Boone and Crocket bucks
To the doe boys that smile from ear to ear
From huge ranches that stretch for miles
To little farms that are doted all over
East Texas is as big as it is little
From the largest Ag mechanics projects
To the duct tape that?ll hold it all together
From the mass trailer production that makes you wonder
To the ?Nah that isn?t rust, that just character? trailers
From the boom and wonder that is Priefert
To original blue head gate that started it all
East Texas is as big as it is little
From the best little league team in the country
To the back-yard games that live forever
From core marching band that march with elegance and grace
To the crisp snap of the most decorated military band in Texas
From the big city urban sprawl that creates a concrete jungle
To the single flashing light towns that you blink and you miss them
East Texas is a big as it is little
From the ?everything is bigger in Texas?
To little bitty home towns all over this great region
East Texas has it all
East Texas is as big as it is little
Third-Place Student
Jazmin Garcia
Northeast Texas, My Home
Brownsville, Texas-born but raised in Northeast Texas
Moving from the brush country to the piney woods
Leaving Cameron County for Titus
I consider Northeast Texas my home
Where I hear crickets chirping instead of honking horns
Instead of bright city lights, I?m amazed by fireflies
I don?t need a florist shop to see natural roses protected by thorns
The beautiful wildlife and countryside is the view in my eyes
Where on a hot summer day, I?d visit the State Park lake
Instead of a crowded beach deciding where to lay
Where communities come together at 4th†of July and Christmas
To watch the fireworks show or see the lit up parade at night
Northeast Texas is my home
Where small towns are nationally recognized
Like the ?Black-Eyed Pea Capitol of the World? in Athens
Let me not forget the ?Rose Capitol of America? in Tyler
Or the ?Gas capital of the United States? in Carthage
Where I can travel to other countries while staying in Northeast
I can visit the mini Eiffel Tower in Texas? very own city of Paris
As well as there is a lot of history from the golden days
The Kilgore Oil Derricks at the World?s Richest Acre prove the oil boom
Northeast Texas is my home
The adventure never stops in small towns
Because as they say ?Everything is bigger in Texas?
Northeast has it all
Fourth-Place Student
Hannah Dickson
What Texas Means to Me
What does Texas mean to me?
Texas means beauty in diversity.
It means lush pastures, dry desserts, and dense forests
It means tiny rural towns and booming cities
It means unpredictable and everchanging weather
It means a melting pot of people under the same sun
Texas means love unconditional
It means friendships that last a lifetime
It means Nana's sweet iced tea and Granny's homemade goodies
It means treasured childhood memories, scrapping knees and climbing trees
It means Family, foremost and forever in every Texan's heart
Texas means a history as rich as its soil
It means "Remember the Alamo" and that "Come and take it" attitude
It means "don?t mess with Texas"
It means a people with roots deeper than those of the pecan trees scattered across this land
It means knowing who you are, where you come from, and taking pride in your heritage
Texas means value in traditions
It means good ole Southern hospitality
It means the angelic song of a church bell on Sunday morning
It means a spirit of community and working together to get things done
It means big attitudes but even bigger hearts
From its awe-inspiring history to its beautiful diversity
From its valued traditions to its endless love
What does Texas mean to me?
Texas means home.
Honorable Mention
Morgan Martin
East Texas Daze
From the skyscraper pines, who emit the smell of the great outdoors, to the eternal oaks whose branches provide shade from the summer blaze,
From seas of bluest bluebonnets billowing in a warm Texas breeze, to the yellow rose whose name invokes feelings of strongest pride in any Texans heart,
The splendor of east Texas is sung by the birds and all of nature behind the pine curtain.
From the jubilant cheers on a cool night at the county fair, to the roar of a rowdy crowd under the bright Friday night lights,
From the highways and long, winding back roads where countless hours are spent, to the calm quiet ponds and fields where lazy cattle graze,
The sun paints the sky in shades of blue, purple, pink, and orange while weary, white clouds laze along the horizon.
With a wave and a smile East Texas welcomes faces both old and new that they might all call her home
