First Place Winner

Incandescent Stars
Yocheved Greenberg

They say that if you look past the moon
on a cold April night
You might be able to spot the places where the
sky stops
Believe me, I've tried
I've rushed to my windows and counted the stars
And I think I might have glimpsed the parts
Where the black meets the white
But as soon as I pull out my phone
To catch the end of the universe on camera
The holes close up
And I'm left to wonder if perhaps I'm going crazy
My father laughs at me when I tell him what I've seen
But I hold steadfast to my belief that there is everything
Behind nothing
And that if we don't use the stars we are given to do good
And to live happily,
Then we are bulbs that are burning out
And then we will just get old and tired
I watch the black start to light up
And it is then that I am thankful
To be alive

Third Place Winner

To My Father
Yehudis Bensinger

My memory was born

In the white folds of your shirt

With a whisper of coffee and smoke

And something called love

On your shoulders



We sang our ghost song

We rooted for Tiger Woods

And danced and danced and danced

Until our feet hurt



I love the way your eyes crinkle

When you smile

They say more than words ever could

(Especially since you don't like talking)



Sometimes you laugh

And tell me you're leaving soon

"If I die, let me die"

A song upon your lips

Because even if you leave

You'll always have had me

But I need you

To wait with me for hours

To go on the Dumbo ride

For every story

Like Rikki Tikki Tavi 
and The Boy Who Cried Wolf



I'm not grown up yet



I need to remember

Your kiss firm on my forehead

The way I nestle in your arms

My face turned into your shirt

Because when I'm with you

The world can't touch me

Passing
Henna Zidele

I dreamed of grassy meadows
Filled with children
The sun was bright and warm air held me
I believed in me

I awoke and didn’t hear the children
The sun was gone
And even the warmth from the meadow 
Remains a memory

Too High
Sarale Fischer

Did Hitler with his marching machines
       Napoleon with his battalions
           Icarus with his fluttering wings
Not realize that instead of stars
They might reach sun
And then the only way is
                               Down
                                 Down
                                   Down?

Unspoken Discoveries
Dina Bressler

I sit silently and peer out the window
I think a lot, but I don’t say much
Conversation is fool’s gold
It may look pretty and shiny
But you can keep it
It’s worthless

I have given up on small talk 
Pointless discussions
Words that have no meaning
I have given up talking altogether
You can keep your useless chit-chat 
Because paper has more patience than people

I want to leave something behind
Something to live on, long after I am gone
The world will keep on turning without me
But I want to be useful
I want to be able to leave my fingerprint on life’s surface
A dent in the mountain of time

We all live with the objective of being happy
Our lives are all different, yet the same
And although at times we don’t say much
A galaxy of thoughts has just been discovered
And we are one step closer
To the theory of everything

Bloody Tears
Henna Zidele

The bloody tears
Fall like rain
Creating rivers,
Oceans of storming waters

Gray covers the sky 
And suffocates all light
The heavens join in
Thunder drowns out 
The screams of the night

Second Place Winner

My 'O'
Mimi Friedman

My ‘O’
If you had ever seen my 'O'
You would understand why every vowel is a summer,
And every day I want to live again.
She was so small at first,
And every rise of her chest was still a miracle.
I would pay the world and over, just to see those eyes.
To touch a crystal.
And the next time I climb a mountain,
The next time I stand on top of the clouds;
I will understand that it is possible for the sky to shine bluer.
Because innocence is a deep sapphire.
And when those days turn around and melt like candles,
I will collect a bucket of the wax.
You may think me crazy to try to heal the wind,
But you have not seen what I have.
You we're not there when I saw the meaning of life
Yawn her tiny lips in sleep,
And nestle deeper into my arms.
You have not seen my 'O'

Dear Good People
Sarale Fischer

Dear good people,
Why do you try?
When compared to the multitudinous sea
You are just one drop
And your home, the earth 
Is just another planet
Revolving ‘round the sun
Which is just another of those
Trillion mile stars
Of which billions are swirling
To form a galaxy
Our galaxy, that is but
One of the masses
All out there and beyond
Into infinity that we 
Can’t know or see
So why do you try
When all you are
Is a microscopic dot
In relation to the sky?

I am Mine
Racheli Bruk

People think they own me 
One time too nice and I’m their slave 
Their mat to step on when they come home 
Their bed to lay on when they get tired 
Their waiter when they are hungry 
But I want to show them 
That I am more than just a piece in their games 
I can be stronger than that
I am mine 
No one has to own me or control me 
I have a mouth to say NO 
To speak for myself 
But I just don’t know how

Flickering 
Leeba State

Flickering
Side to side
Like a ribbon
Undulating 
In the wind
Illuminating
The impenetrable darkness
With its luminous
 Orange glow
Casting shadows
Upon the darkened walls
Tiny
In the vast room
Yet
Completely powerful

The Button
Chaya Esther Friedman

Among the scattered bits
Of yarn and cloth
I keep a button
Coated with rust
Tangled in thread

Every week or so 
I  take out the button  
And clasp  it tightly in my fist 

You ask why I keep it
Why don’t I just throw it away

It wasn’t anything special
When it was just 
A button

A button
That still dreams and hopes

Together with me

In Between
Yehudis Bensinger 

Yesterday I was sixteen. A mere child. 
Today I’m seventeen. I’m supposed to be a whole year older.
But I’m not! It’s only been twenty four hours. 
But apparently Time plays by her own rules. 
Yesterday I was crawling
and when I tried to stand, she said
“Don’t go too fast!” and pushed me down
until I crawled again.
All my life, all I’ve known is floor,
rich brown wood in a patchwork of angles,
every board nailed and wrinkled with life. 
I’ve studied that floor
forever.
But Time strikes twelve…

TICK! TOCK!
“Grow up!” she screeches,
“Everyone can see you now!” 
I never knew I was invisible. 
She forces me to run when I’ve never learned to stand.
Run, faster, run, faster, run run run.
Somehow I rise to my feet and look up-
So this is a sky! 
“Grow up!”
But the sun is too bright – 
“Grow up!”
– it’s blinded me. 
Run run run, circles round and round and round
and I’ve become so detached 
That I can’t even see the floor 
Anymore.