St. Thomas More Student Gets Poem Published

Anna D. Sixsmith, a seventh-grader at in Salisbury Township, was recently named among the winners of a national poetry contest and as a result, her poem was published in an anthology, "A Celebration of Poets."

Sixsmith's poem, "Rain," was among the poems that Language Arts teacher Peggy Herman submitted from seventh and eighth grade students to the Poetic Power National Poetry Contest. 

Thousands of poems were submitted from across the country and Canada, but Sixsmith, 13, was one of only four seventh-graders to win and the only Pennsylvanian in the grade 7-9 category. The poems were judged for their literary merit, creativity and social significance. Sixsmith won a copy of the anthology and a $25 check, which she said she plans to promptly spend on more books.

Here is Sixsmith's winning poem.

Rain

One by one they come,
Staccatoed in a majestic rhythm.
Heavier and faster they fall
Like arrows shot by gods in war.
Catapulted from heaven.
Wrung from the steel gray blanket above
To the soaking grass below
Sounds muted together
Like static from a radio.
Rumbles in the distance
Are like gunshots on the moon.
As Nature's tears trickled to the Earth
A wind blows
Ruffling the willows,
Soaking them to the bone,
The tears tiptoeing across every surface.
Listen closely,
Hear them whispering,
Their soft voices like a lullaby
To the sleeping satin earth.