2002 Creative Writing Contest Winners

The Dream Keeper by Langston Hughes.
Bring me all of your dreams. Bring me all of your Heart melodies that I may wrap them in a blue cloud-cloth away from the too-rough fingers of the world.

Grades 3 - 4
Lindsay Hirata
“I’ve Had a Dream”
Greater San Diego

Grades 9 - 10
Elijah Atkinson
“The Dreamer Forgotten”
Redwood

Grades 5 - 6
Sarah Thomas
“My Land”
Central

Grades 11 - 12
Frances Wang
“Bamboo Dreams”
Redwood

Grades 7 - 8
Noelle Miraglia
“Dream”
Central

Professional
Anna J. Roseboro
“Balloon to Lace to Lesson”
Greater San Diego

Dream

My dream is a secret
Wrapped up in a handkerchief
Put into a sock and tied with a bow
Then put into a box the color of snow
Hidden in a closet
Behind all the shoes
Covered with a blanket and shades of blues
It's locked up in that closet away from the world
To catch that dream I'll go through leaps and bounds,
Valleys and deserts, over hills and mounds
Once I've got it, I'm halfway there
Start early in life, and I'll have time to spare
Make that dream come alive
Not in the darkness and dust
It's so important
I will, I must

-Noelle Miraglia
8th grade, Mrs. Clifford
Mt. Carmel School

My Land

Dream through time
Walk through feelings
Gallop through the bottomless well of thoughts

Without means of turning back
There is no end
And no beginning

Only space
Only time
Only dreams

This is my land

The land of hope
The land of happiness
The land of joy
The land of bliss

My land

On the wings of dragons
Fierce emerald eyes
Gleaming in the fire light

On the back of a unicorn
Flowing sheets of silk silver mane

This is my land

Now you may not appreciate
This land of mine

Where fortune lies in the murky ominous caverns
Pirates somberly waiting to call it their own

This is only child's play
They will say to me
Nonsense and gibberish

But I have been there
And I know the place

Where dragons fly
And whisper

In this land of mine

-Sarah Thomas
6th grade, Cindy P. Gates, teacher
Stevenson School