Nature Poetry Contest Winners

This is my eighth year of hosting a Poem a Day in February. During this month there are four contests. We held a rhyming and rhyming haiku contest the first week and a best Valentine poem/rhyme for week two. And for week three we looked for passion poems/rhymes.

Then this last week we looked at nature poetry/rhyme. There were 43 nature poems/rhymes entered and all were very good. One judge specialized in rhyme and the other judge had a master's degree in poetry.

In addition to the four winners, we had 5 additional honorable mentions this round. The winners receive a gift and a book of poems/rhymes from PaDiF 2024.

The winners are included here:

JoAnn Boorman

My memory seems to be getting bad

But that doesn’t make me sad

Instead, it’s pretty exciting

And even feels inviting

I go out my door and find

I forgot to bring my mind

I can’t remember what to buy

So I stand in the store and sigh

I can’t remember where I’ve been

And so I might go there again

Did I put the cat out the door

Or am I bringing her in once more

My life is in a tizzy

All this thinking makes me dizzy

~~

Kathy Hron

God painted the sky an iridescent blue

Then dipped his brush into Lake Havasu.

The beautiful Colorado River bed,

Copper Canyon, He painted that red.

It leaves me speechless.

The arid desert is amazing to see.

How it blooms. The stunning beauty.

What seemed dead, is now vibrant.

Is that the message our Father meant?

It leaves me speechless.

Current painters try to emulate.

They fall short. It is their fate.

Artists today, all very grand,

Cannot match our Creator’s hand.

It leaves me speechless.

~~

Jennifer Sawatzky

~Winds of change~

Today the wind was roughly blowing,

Buds on trees started swiftly growing.

The sun shining down ever bright,

Birds flying high as clouds out of sight.

The grass is green, alive, and has started showing.

Summers surprise in the earth slowly sewing.

Each new season brings new daily missions,

In every Creator's conditions.

Animals awake stretching their bones,

Letting out rumbling roaring moans!

Bugs are about moving and shaking,

Some would say “mini earthquaking!”

Some are stuck inside to their devil.

Yet in nature not even clouds are level!

Timeless days as clocks stop ticking,

cicadas wake up just to start clicking!

Running in cycles that we ALL do~

Ever to the heart & the earth stay true.

Today the wind was roughly blowing,

Life abounds for those of knowing!

~~

Carol Verant Arola