Hays Public Library

There were eight original poems shared Friday at the annual Poetry Contest at the Hays Public Library.

Out of the eight contestants, Ray Factor was the overall winner. His name will be added to the list of past winners on the Poetry Contest plaque in the Schmidt Gallery. Dawne Leiker was the runner-up. Read both Factor’s and Leiker’s poems below.

April is National Poetry Month, and the Hays Public Library has been celebrating for 15 years. Eric Norris was the first winner of the annual contest back in 2000. Norris is now the director of the Hays Public Library. To see the full list of past winners visit www.hayspublib.org.

Judges were David Goodlett and Paulia Bailey.

If Words Could Kill.
by Ray Factor

If I wrote poetry. Would you notice me?
Or am I just a casualty of a cruel society?
Would you laugh at me?
Make fun of me?
Expose my vulnerability
To the whole community.

If I took the time to write a song
Would you sing along?
Or would you make believe
You don’t remember me?
Or the part of me
That broken heart in me
That creates the artistry
Out of the insanity

If I showed any kind of humanity.
Would you banish me?
Riddle me with profanity?
Would you discriminate, or intimidate?
World forbid we assimilate.

What does it take to bend your will?
It takes more strength to love
Than courage to kill
Would you reveal the secrets that scars conceal
If a bleeding heart had a chance to heal?

A man shot John Lennon in the back
When all he asked was give peace a chance.
And they killed Dr. Martin Luther King
When he dared to put faith in a Dream.
And what of the son of man, Jesus Christ.
Do you remember why they took his life?

Tell me what’s so threatening about love and peace,
Or hopes and dreams of equality,
Or forgiving those who have done wrong to me,
So that mankind might live in harmony?

When life could depend on a single word
between what you said and what they heard.
Would you share your thoughts on how you feel?
Would you express yourself on what was real?
Would you tell the world what it needs to heal,
If the words you spoke could get you killed?

———–

Summer Thieves
by Dawne Leiker

She hasn’t called me to come inside.
Maybe she’ll forget I’m out here
In the dark
Chasing fireflies.

I run in the tender, fragrant grass.
Steal the last breath of summer from the night.

Shrieks and laughter echo down the alley
As neighbor kids spot the fireflies.
Screen doors bang
Kitchen lights
The smell of outdoors on indoor kids.

The alley goes silent
Darkness wins the day.
Fireflies illuminate their Mason jar prison.
Reveal the worn path to my back porch.

In the kitchen, my mother’s weary face manages a faint smile
When I release into her weathered hands the jar of tiny summer stars.