WINNERS & RANKINGS
The Great American Poetry Competition
Judged by
Andrew Benson Brown, Joseph Bottum, Margaret Coats, Evan Mantyk,
Arthur Mortensen, Joshua Philipp, Mark F. Stone
.
Henry Longfellow Ode & Ballad Grand Prize
Prize Winner ($1,500)
Hymn – Joseph Charles Mackenzie
Finalists Tier 1 ($250)
The Melody That Lingers On – John McPherson
American Dreams – Adam Sedia
An American Dash – Linda Ellis
The Ballad of the Ghost Mountain Boys – Rachel Lott
The American Spirit – Dusty Grein
Finalists Tier 2
Legend of the Griffin – Iryna Hall
Clarence Thomas, American Hero – Cynthia Erlandson
The Gold Star Mother – Gerard Maritato
Ogden Nash Satire & Light Verse Prize
Prize Winner ($1,000)
Two Fateful American Coin Flips – James A. Tweedie
Finalists
Love Not War… But Maybe a Red-Blooded Man? – Shelly Marshall
The 51st State – James Sale
Robert Frost Sonnet Prize
Prize Winner ($500)
The Swearing-in of Calvin Coolidge – Robert W. Crawford
Finalists
America: 250 Years – Cliff Miller
Ben – Theresa Werba
High School Prize
Prize Winner ($500)
For Those We Never Meet – Aneesh Agarwal
Grade 11, Sunset High School, Portland, Oregon
Finalist Tier 1
A Gentleman’s Guide to Losing a War – Arnon Peterson
Grade 11, Home School, Oregon City, Oregon
Finalists Tier 2
Two Hundred and Fifty Years Hence – Robert Catanese
Grade 11, St. Cloud High School, St. Cloud, Florida.
An American Road Trip – Tashvi Reddy
12th grade at Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Massachusetts
The Sowing of a State – Arnon Peterson
Grade 11, Home School, Oregon City, Oregon
The Anonymous Soldier – Lucy Lind
Grade 11, Classical Keys Academy (Homeschool), Lakeland, Florida
Honorable Mentions
Henry Longfellow Ode & Ballad Category
The Wonder of the World – Muhammad Athar
Look Away – Roger Crane
The Wild Flame – Joseph Charles Mackenzie
America, My Home – Rusty Rabon
A Quarter-Thousand Years – Jared Chang
An American Fabius – John Hernandez
Common Sense: Addressed to the Inhabitants of America – Bradford Skow
Old Man At The Wall – John McPherson
Double Date: July 4th, 1826 – Stephen Binns
The Ballad of Zebulon Pike – M. D. Skeen
There’s Blood that Flows Within the Stripes – Lauren Leon
The American Eagle’s Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness – Manna Cruz
Death of a Statesman – James Fife
The Oldest Glory – Bethany Grace
What America Was Meant to Be – Mike Johansson
Co-option of Co-created Reality – Josh Mitteldorff
Outstanding in Afghanistan – Jared Chang
250 More – Miguel Moreno
Penelope – Monika Cooper
On Trumbull’s Declaration of Independence – Maura H. Harrison
The Thirteen Folds — From the Soldier Whose Memory It Carries – Katniss Everdeen
The Buffalo Ghosts’ Story – Joan Lange
When the Last World War II Veteran Passes Away – N. S. Boone
The Day Mr. Lincoln Died – Robert Bartles
September’s Child – Anne Buchanan
Winged Warrior – Sam Kauffman
Stones of Arlington – Sean Keating
Before the Shot Was Heard – Harry Kirk
With Liberty and Justice for All – James A. Tweedie
One Day In July – Kristina Tilley
A Speck of Life in America – Gail Gilligan
The Passing of the Torch – Susan Rives
Liberty Bell – Guy Grabil
Night Light Legend – Scott Dunham
Fly Free – Roger Adams
Thomas Paine – Sophie Schiller
Betsy Ross – Kristy Marrett
Ogden Nash Satire & Light Verse Category
The Semiquincentennial Tree – Janice Stanley
The Mall Not Taken – Risa Lewak
Stripes – Iryna Hall
Otto and Octavius at Boston Harbor – Mary Gardener
Our Time – Joseph Charles Mackenzie
Robert Frost Sonnet Category
Omaha Beach – Bradford Skow
Prayers of an American Chaplain – Stephen Binns
Ben Franklin’s Copper Fugio Cent – Geoffrey Smagacz
The Weathered Flag – Joseph Charles Mackenzie
High School Category
A Light that Guides Today – Howard Li
Grade 9, Highland Park High School, Dallas, TX
The Republic We Built – Anthony Moskvich
(Age 20) Loyola Marymount University
The Tale of Frank Jackson – L. Lucille Jackson
Grade 12, North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Durham, North Carolina.
Missing In Action – Sarah Angelica Tarka
Grade 11, The Baldwin School, Bewn Mawr, Pennsylvania
Onward Route 66 – “America’s Highway” – Nathaniel Leon
Grade 10, Independent Homeschool, Mantellum Matris Academy, Riverside, CA.
