LYRICAL LANGUAGE LAB
2ND ANNUAL SUMMER POETRY CONTEST *for kidlit
THEME: Hearing Voices – Mask Poems
What can we say? The judges were equally impressed with these two poems and simply could not choose between them, no way, no how! Both poems deserve the honor, and we are pleased to present them side by side.
I been hangin’ ‘round this place
for much too long
They put me out to dry one day
and ain’t never come back
So I just wait and sway
wait and sway
Let the sun soak me through
Wind always comin’ and goin’ –
never stayin’ long enough
for me to ask his name –
he don’t know mine neither
wait and sway
wait and sway
I dream of a warm body
to fill this empty belly,
chase away the chill
and ease these tired arms
wait and sway
wait and sway
Prayin’ for a storm to set me free
Light as air gonna follow that wind on home
wait and sway
wait and sway
Let the sun soak me through
© 2025 Serafina Finnegan
The ginkgos drop their gilt in honeyed drifts.
My boy throws handfuls in the air. He laughs,
all gold and crisp and dancing, like the sun
on Monday morning, like the parchment leaves
that float and fall. My boy says, “River, leap!”
I don’t just leap. I four foot launch. I fly.
I’m in the atmosphere, where butterflies
meet school bells in the fog, and crows complain
of seagull smells, and dogs and dreams collide.
I twist and bite and snap. I miss. I fall.
My boy yells, “Holy cow! So close!” although
we both know I have never caught a thing
in my whole life. Then, unexpectedly,
I do. The candied peels of my boy’s laugh
alight upon my nose, where even I
can reach them with my tongue. He pats my head.
He says “Good dog.” I wag my tail, because
I am.
© 2025 Kimber Rudo
Serafina is a children’s author who writes moving, lyrical stories that respect the complex inner lives of children. Her stories are filled with craggy mountains, snowy journeys, and castles made of moonlight. She is a 2024 PB Party finalist, a 2023 mentee of the Rutgers University Council on Children’s Literature, and a two-time winner of the Raynor Wallace Award for Poetry. Her latest manuscript, The Storyteller, was shortlisted for Searchlight Awards’ Best Picture Book Text of 2024.
IG: @serafinafinnegan
X: @serafinnegan
We love the self-possessed, believable voice of the shirt, and the use of the vernacular to create a strong sense of place and personality. The masterful repetition of “wait and sway” supports the shirt’s (almost) acceptance of its fate — a calm belied by glimpses into the shirt’s longing for companionship (“a warm body to fill this empty belly”) and desire to share its earthly burdens (“ease these tired arms”). We were moved by the unexpected, transient relationship between the shirt and the wind, and the image of the shirt as a dreamer who holds onto hope despite being forgotten. It is the shirt’s infinite patience and faith in the wind that leaves us rooting for it and willing that storm to come, so that the shirt, at last, can fly: “Light as air gonna follow that wind on home.”
Kimber is a writer, dancer, dog wrangler and cat herder from the San Francisco Bay Area, where she lives with her husband, son, and rescue puppy Westley. Her poetry has previously appeared in The Rising Phoenix Review and The Road Not Taken. When not tinkering with words, Kimber directs The Academy of Danse Libre, a nonprofit organization that specializes in the reconstruction and performance of historic social dances from the late eighteenth through early twentieth centuries.
Personal Web: kimberrudo.com
Dance Company: danselibre.org
The voice in this poem is simply extraordinary and, we all agree, completely and authentically “dog.” The poem is unassuming, moving, and full of love … dog for boy and boy for dog. The masterful use of language is apparent from the first line with its gentle assonance and alliteration, and continues throughout with line after line of dog-specific imagery. We oohed and aahed over River’s leap into “…the atmosphere, where butterflies / meet school bells in the fog …” and “…dogs and dreams collide.” The poem then deftly and surprisingly draws us into that proud moment when River finally catches something, and we share those delicious “candied peels” of his boy’s laugh. And could anything be more satisfying than the truth and simplicity of emotion in that last line? Sigh.
What do I care about the garden?
I worry about the pot
The watering can
And the shears
What do I care about winter?
I worry about the thermostat
Vacations
And closed curtains
What do I care about the future?
I worry about beauty
Cat claws
And the curious dog
Sometimes I dream of travel
Of another room
A different slant of sunshine
An open window
© 2025 Darcy Day Zoells
Darcy Day Zoells is the author and illustrator of the picture books SMITHY AND ME (Clavis, 2025) and THE NEW BICYCLE (Clavis, 2023). The latter won the Gold Medal in the Key Colors Competition and was a CBC Librarians’ Favorite, and an Illinois Reads selection. Her artwork has won numerous awards and been exhibited at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. Darcy studied Art History and Studio Art at Northwestern University. She ran a visual literacy program at the elementary school level for ten years and loves to engage with children about books, art, and what they see.
Web: DarcyDayZoells.com
IG: @darcydayzoells
FB: DarcyDayZoells
Like the bonsai tree that speaks to us, this expertly crafted poem is clean, precise, and crisp. We love that this Japanese tree is reflected in the spare format—simple, soulful, and reminiscent of haiku. These are ordinary daily worries for a bonsai, but there is something layered and profound (and perhaps a bit defiant?) in the bonsai’s questions and in the listing of its worries. The bonsai is firmly planted in the present (“What do I care about the future?”) and seems to care only that its present needs are met. But those mundane concerns are beautifully juxtaposed with the wistful revelations in the last stanza, which signals to us that this bonsai might indeed care about something. The emotional pull of that stanza makes us hope “a different slant of sunshine” soon shines on this little tree.
(alphabetical)
We zip, we zoom – no time to waste! –
like hunting cheetahs on a chase.
We buzz, we bizz because it is
our way to fly with wings that whizz.
We dart, we dash from plant to plant.
We pollinate, and yet you rant.
You sweat, then swat with attitude
when we are spotted near your food.
You “Shoo!” you “Scat!” although you know
you need us for your plants to grow.
Why must you think that we’ll attack?
We only want to share your snack.
Invite us to your Barb-Bee-Q!
You know we’ll show – we always do..
© 2025 Cindy Greene
Growing up, Cindy wanted to be Shel Silverstein, an art teacher, or president of the World Bank. While not on track for those, she loves to write poetry and picture books and make things. Cindy’s poetry can be found in the Writers’ Loft anthologies, The Dirigible Balloon, Little Thoughts Press, and stamped in a concrete sidewalk in her town. She can’t say enough good things about The Lyrical Language Lab (but she will continue to try).
Bluesky: @cindygreene314.bsky.social
X: @cindygreene314
My herd,
my family. You heard my
rumble
and know the reason:
Dry Season.
This land is parched.
Onward we’ll
march
to forage for food and water.
Through clouds of dust,
I’ll keep your
trust
across this African plain.
I know watery routes through
years of droughts
and lands with vegetation.
I’ll guide and we will
survive
this next
and next
and next
migration.
© 2025 Becky Goodman
Becky grew up with an imagination as active as the wildlife she lived by, believing she could become the animals. Now, in her stories and poems, she gets to! With an MS in Language and Literacy, Becky was an elementary teacher before writing children’s books. A graduate of Children’s Book Academy and Lyrical Language Lab, she’s a member of SCBWI, 12×12, and Writing Barn’s Courage to Create. Home in the mountains of Crozet, Virginia, she loves writing children’s books full of quirky, big-hearted characters with deep hopes.
Bluesky: @beckygoodman.bsky.social
I carry palm-cupped kisses to
Your grandma when you part.
I fog the chilly window pane
For fingertip drawn art.
You pull me in and hold me tight
When plunging in the pool.
I bluster, blowing over lips
Across hot soup to cool.
I fill the bright and bouncy sides
Of colorful balloons.
I whistle over teeth and tongue
To form your favorite tunes.
In nippy, numbing winter air
I curl in misty trails.
I spin the fins of pinwheels and
Dry freshly painted nails.
I flick away the candle flames
Atop your birthday cake.
I scatter dandelion seeds,
Drop wishes in my wake.
You chase me when you’re racing
And catch me when you rest.
I lift your voice. I bring in life
Each time you fill your chest.
© 2025 Jessica Jenson
As a child, Jessica dreamed of being a writer. Now, she writes for children of all ages, including the children-at-heart. Her work has appeared in Focus on the Family Magazine, Her View From Home, and in posts on the preschool activity blog Hands On As We Grow. Jessica is a wife, mother, poet, and aspiring picture book author living on the rolling plains of South Dakota. When she isn’t writing, she can be found with her head in the clouds, her nose in a book, and her feet planted between the rows of a vegetable garden.
Emerging from nowhere
I awoke,
a mountain spring babbling baby talk,
burbling in rivulets down falling hillsides
into snakeskin creeks of speckled light,
into rippling rainbows of swelling troutwater,
a sleek otter wending indelicate obstacles,
a coolwater stream flowing, growing,
elbowing my way
between valleys of cut silt and yielding stone,
becoming River,
sideslipping along the farmways,
through town and village,
past the city—to meet you here
where you drink cans of soda,
walk with me in muddy sandals
and pitch flat skipping stones across
my slow wide back.
© 2025 Doida Dabbles
This is Doida. He writes poetry for Everyday Tweenagers—kids on the cusp of adolescence. He has two collections in the works, Change Happens btw, and How Can You Stop a Bully? Doida dabbles in art, illustration, adult poetry, music, cookery, and communicating with trees.
Web: doidadabbles.com
I’m the best hyperbole
the world has ever seen!
I’m HYPER-hyperbolic! An
exaggeration queen!
I’ll make your writing better than
all history recalls!
I’ll make your writing sparkle more
than fifty disco balls!
I’m the awesomest, by far!
My energy? It stuns!
I shine with the intensity
of sixty million suns!
On a scale of one to ten,
I’m twenty, can’t deny!
And if you don’t agree with me,
well, then, I’ll likely DIE!
© 2025 Katrina Swenson
Katrina wears many hats, but one of her favorite, fanciest hats is her writing one. She especially loves writing for children, and extra especially loves rhyming. You can find her poems in The School Magazine, High Five, Little Thoughts Press, and the Dirigible Balloon. Katrina’s debut picture book, LOVE, GRUMBLE, with fabulous pictures by Charles Santoso, is due in bookstores near you in December of 2026 from Little, Brown.
IG: @katrinaandkidlit
Bluesky: @katrinaswenson.bsky.social
© 2025 Lisa Roullard
Lisa resides in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she enjoys a view of the Wasatch Mountains on her neighborhood walks. Her poetry has appeared in magazines in more than 25 U.S. states as well as online and in her chapbook, An Envelope Waiting. Her children’s poems can be found in The Dirigible Balloon, The Toy, Little Thoughts Press, and Parakeet.
IG: @LRoullard
X: @LisaRoullard
Jellyfish sting and sharks make you flee,
but those flimsy fools got nothin’ on me!
WINNER coming through! Yeah, I pack a punch!
Don’t cross my path ‘cos I’m hungry for …
LUNCH!
SMACK! CRUNCH! CRACK! That crab is DONE!
See my right hook? It’s second to none!
I’m a bare-knuckled bruiser! I’m a technicolor threat!
I make saltwater boil without breaking a sweat.
The ocean’s my ring, so step aside, wimp!
Have you guessed what I am?
I’m a PEACOCK MANTIS SHRIMP!
© 2025 Laura Wippell
As an Australian living in Chile, Laura loves writing imaginative children’s books that make you feel local, and think global. Laura has a background in Education, and is passionate about sharing her books with children and educators around the world. She is a member of Inked Voices and coordinates a critique group for her SCBWI region. Writing fills her with energy and joy.
Web: laurawippell.com
IG: @laura.wippell
Bluesky: @laurawippell.bsky.social
The judges chose your poems out of hundreds of entries!
