"To you students, I would say this: learning your watershed should be an adventure and so should expressing it in poems and art. I hope you'll bring all of your natural energy and imagination to it. It doesn't matter whether you live in the city or in the country; water runs through it that supports your life. Your imaginations run through the place where you live like the water does. So I wish you watery minds and earthy minds and airy minds -- and fiery minds. And all of us involved with 'River of Words' hope you have fun with this project."
-- Robert Hass
Poet Laureate, 1995-97
Daniel Butler, grade 8, Stuart Hobson Middle School, was the D.C. regional winner. - John Cole
The 10 student winners of the 1997 "River of Words" national environmental poetry and art contest were honored at the Library of Congress on May 3 during a reading and awards ceremony. This day at the Library -- also enjoyed by the students' teachers and parents -- was hosted by the Center for the Book, the International Rivers Network and Mr. Hass, who served as moderator for the ceremony.
The "River of Words" project builds community awareness about the importance of river, creek and wetlands conservation efforts by encouraging young people to learn their personal "ecological address" and to describe, through poetry and art, their own "place in space." The project also links educators to conservation organizations and bookstores, libraries and creative artists in a national effort to understand and mobilize support for local watershed protection. Designed to increase awareness and understanding of the natural world and its connection to artistic expression and the human spirit, the project also encourages participation in National Poetry Month and Earth Day, both celebrated each April.
"The 'River of Words' project helps the Center for the Book fulfill one of the principal goals of its new 'Rivers of America' project -- sparking the interest of young people in the world they inhabit," said John Y. Cole, the center's director. "Every river has a story to tell, a story that brings literature, history, folklore and environmental concerns to the fore."
Tobi Earnheart-Gold, grade 4, Bolinas- Stinson School, was the San Francisco Bay area winner. - John Cole
This year's winners, who read their poems and displayed their art at the Library, were announced by Mr. Hass at the San Francisco Public Library on April 8. The contest winners (four grand prize winners in poetry and four in art, representing four age categories) plus regional winners from the San Francisco Bay area and the Washington, D.C., area, were chosen by a panel of judges headed by Hass and Germaine Juneau, director of the International Children's Art Museum.
The deadline for submitting entries for next year's "River of "Words" contest is Feb. 15, 1998. For information, contact the International Rivers Network, 1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA 94703. The e-mail address is [email protected]; the web site is http://www.irn.org.
Principal funders of the "Rivers of Words" project are the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the Rhode Island Foundation and the Center for Ecoliteracy. Goods and services were contributed by the American Booksellers Association; Bantam/Doubleday/Dell; Magnetic Poetry; Amsterdam Art; and American Way, the magazine of American Airlines.
Winning Poem
Category II (Grades 3-6)
"Animals in Snow"
by Gerrell Scribner, grade 4
Eel River Charter School,
Covelo, Calif.
For I was dark
now am light.
For I was brown
now am white.
For I was summer
now am snow.
Upon my back
the seasons grow.
And so I change.
I reproduce
upon my hide
the wintering
I feel inside.
