Female Speaker: From the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C..
John Cole: I am John Cole.
I'm the Director of the Library's Center for the Book,
one of its outreach arms, and we are partnered with River of Words
and have been from the beginning in helping
to create this wonderful not only event, but this wonderful program.
And it's a special pleasure for us to welcome not only our finalists
and our winners but the families, the parents and the friends
of not just River of Words, but friends of the environment,
friends of education and, we hope, friends of the Library of Congress.
I'd like to know just -- for how many of you is this the first visit
to the Library of Congress?   All right.
I would say 42 percent.
[laughter] I'm a precise librarian, you see, so I have this figured out.
A couple of things about the day.
We are going to have a chance to see a little bit of the Library.
You are in the first separate Library of Congress building.
This building was opened in 1897.
Our first Library of Congress was over in the U.S. Capitol,
and as many of you know, if we could see
through those blinds we would see the U.S. Capitol.
If we could see through these curtains we would see the
Supreme Court.
So just believe me, you're in a special place
in Washington, D.C. right now.
We are going to have a luncheon in a different building
and as we walk together from here,
I'll be able to tell you a little bit about the buildings
and a little bit about the Library and its history.
But we now are in three buildings and the Library
of Congress is indeed the largest library in the world.
It also is a wonderful place that reaches readers
and potential readers of all ages.
So we're proud to have another program for young people,
that is part of a project now with the Center For the Book,
which I head, and with the Library of Congress itself.
And this year we're going to open the first young readers' center
in the Library of Congress, so you are, in fact,
part of our wonderful new look at the Library of Congress.
Now, here are a couple of rules for today and then we'll start.
One is will everyone please turn off your BlackBerrys.
And that's for the kids, too, because we --
it's important because we are filming this program
and some day you'll be able to see what happens on the web site
of the Library of Congress and on the Web site
of the Center For the Book.
So everyone will be able to continue enjoying this ceremony.
Now, I'm going to introduce two special people who are the founders
of River of Words and they're the ones who are going to take us
through not just the awards ceremony but we're going to be able
to meet our individual winners, hear them and see some of the artwork
that has been produced by our winners.
River of Words was actually created at the Library of Congress
by the poet laureate at the time, and we're very lucky
to have Bob Hass, Robert Hass, who was the Poet Laureate,
I think it was 1995 to 1996.   Robert, do I have that -- I'm close?
Which is the time, '97, 1995 to 1997.
Poetry is an important part of Library of Congress
and the Librarian of Congress nominates and names someone
who is the chief poet for a couple of years and Bob Hass,
one of the cofounders, is with us, and he and his colleague,
Pamela Michael, are the ones who dreamt up this wonderful project
and they will tell you a little bit about it.
But they have been working with the Center For the Book now for a number
of years, and have created a network of teachers and wonderful people
who not only appreciate the environment and water
and the importance of the activities with the kids
but also are developing school programs and curriculum programs.
Finally, I do want to acknowledge,
and there will be many acknowledgements today,
but we do have support for this program from the EPA,
and we will have representatives
from the Environmental Protection Agency here today to talk
about another partnership that is supporting this.
But, for the time being, I'm going to --
well, for the rest of the morning, I'm going to bring forth Bob Hass
and Pamela, would you both come up here
or at least -- let's give them a hand.
[applause] And which -- who is going to start?
Pamela Michael: I'll start.
John Cole: Pamela Michael is going to start.
Pamela. Pamela Michael: Thanks, John, and welcome, everybody.
We are so, so happy to see all of you here and I know some
of you have made a lot of sacrifices to get here,
and put a lot of effort into it.   By far, the prize for the person
who has come the longest distance is our international winner who is here
from Sri Lanka [spelled phonetically].
So you'll be meeting her soon.
We're here to celebrate all of you kids today,
and your wonderful creativity, and your work and your words
and your images and ideas.
And we hope that you'll be inspired to continue to explore the world
around you, learn more about it, learn how to take care of it
and that your work will inspire us, the adults,
to find ways to make the world a clean, safe, beautiful,
sustainable place for all of us for all time.
So we have a big mission head of us and we firmly believe at River
of Words that it is through the arts and through this kind of sharing
and through cultures meeting each other and sharing their,
their visions and their ideas that those things are achievable.
I want to introduce you to Robert Hass who --
without whom there would be no River of Words.
And when you see how he nurtures these young poets
and artists you will understand the importance of that kind
of mentorship and the kind of care that we really need
to put into our children.
I think we're losing site a little bit in education today
about the importance of real interaction
and authentic interaction and exchange
between teacher and student.
It's a very precious, ancient and very important relationship.
And I work a lot with teachers doing training,
and I know that there's a lot of despair among teachers now
about the inability to have creative and spontaneous interactions
in the classroom and outside.
How many teachers are in the audience just by -- well --
[applause] You're going to meet our teacher of the year,
Barbara Strasko, later in the day, but thank you all
for the wonderful work you do.
There would be no River of Words without you.
So please welcome Robert Hass for the rest of the day.
[applause] Robert Hass: So this is, first of all,
a celebration of the kids and their openness to the world
and their openness to language and to visual arts and their gift.
Would all of the children who are winners today
and finalists please stand up right now.
This is about you guys.   [applause] Congratulations.
Thank you very much.
Now, brothers and sisters, siblings and parents
of the winners also please stand up.
All of you.   [applause] Thanks so much.
I want to say to you kids as you look
around this room that this room is yours.
This Library is yours.
Thomas Jefferson gave his personal library to start the Library
of Congress because he understood that if we're --
the kind of democracy we're going to have, the power of language
and the power of expression, visual expression, musical expression,
all had to be invested in the people and it had to be available to,
to the members of Congress who make the laws
and guide this country in its future.
And the Library was created for that but it belongs
to us, it belongs to you guys.
And one of the wonderful American poets said about the American land,
talking about the fact that Europeans came here
and over the last few hundred years have been learning the American
land, Robert Frost said, "The land was ours before we were the land's."
That is, we took it over before we learned how to belong to it.
And it turns out that learning how to belong
to the land is a lifetime job of many generations,
taking care of these places.
And it was our basic idea with River of Words to ask you kids,
because we're inside at a desk so much
and you're still outside playing, still out alive to the world
and close to the experience of it to give us in poems
and in your art your feel for what the world is
like so we can hold it back up to all the rest of us and say,
"This is what we have to take care of.
This is our job to do it."
And we thought we would not only be -- by showing them your work,
showing them the job, giving ourselves and you hope
and assurance that this could be done.
A wonderful philosopher, teacher about the nature of art,
wrote a book about children's art, Pia Lindstrom was her name
and she said, "The first power of art," and I loved this
when I read it, "is the power of being a cause."
Think of the first time you were able to pick
up a crayon and make a line.   I remember one of my children,
the first time she made a line said, "I did it."
And that spirit of saying "I did it" is what we want to show the world
in the work that you did.
In the past I often talk a little bit about how much work --
how much there is to take care of, what the dangers are to so many
of the creatures of the world, the shrinking habitats
of forests for wild creatures.
We were at the zoo yesterday with my granddaughter, Ella,
who came here from California to be at the ceremony with us,
and we got to see in place
after place the shrinking habitat of a lot of creatures.
The other thing we got to see is the enormous resiliency of nature.
Its enormous power to heal itself and take care
of itself, if we support it.
So it's in the spirit of Thomas Jefferson's idea and the idea
in this Library that we can all read, we can all study,
we can all learn, we can all have the power to take care of the world
that was given to us, and the celebration of your gifts.
I have to say there were 20,000 poems and paintings by children
from all over the country this year, last year, previous years,
and it's thrilling to see them each time.
You kids who are here are here because you're very gifted.
You have a gift that's been given to you of the power of expression
and you're going to be able to use it
to make a difference in the world.
And, and that's what we're here to celebrate today.
We have a lot of poems and a lot of art to show you before we get
to lunch and to John Cole's wonderful brief tour
of this amazing place that's your place.
So I think what we should do is proceed right now and begin
to listen to -- [applause] Thank you.
Poems. I'm a little concerned about the logistics of standing
for the young poets here.   Pamela Michael: Hmm.
We might need a little stool.   Robert Hass: I think we're going
to need some kind of a stool or something.
Pamela Michael: That's right.
Robert Hass: Or -- let's -- here we go.
Pamela Michael: All right.   Well, let's get started and we'll --
Robert Hass: Okay, we'll get started.
Pamela Michael: I don't know how one gets a stool
at the Library of Congress.   Who do you ask?
[laughter] The director of stools or something.
Robert Hass: So one of the ways of taking care of nature
in art is the powerful tradition in Asia of close attention
that in Japanese took the form of writing haiku,
and one of our finalists, Andrew Baxter who is from Gibsonia,
Pennsylvania, from Eden Hall Upper Elementary School.
His teacher is Debra Newcomer [spelled phonetically] is here
and he's got a short poem to read for us.
Andrew. Pamela Michael: Andrew, are you here?
Robert Hass: Andrew?
Pamela Michael: Well, if he comes in later -- Robert Hass: Is not here.
His, his short poem called
"Snowflake" goes: Six-pointed wonder.
Look at the blanket of snow.   Snowmen start like this.
[laughter] Look at the blanket of snow, five, seven, five.
There's a kind of wonderful little mathematics of form that runs
through this simple poem, as the mathematics of form run
through the architecture of this building.
Six-pointed wonder.   Look at the blanket of snow.
Snowmen start like this.   Our second poet is Alexa Beaver.
She's from Pruda, Colorado.
She's from Caprock Academy in Grand Junction
and her teacher is Susan Sharpe.   Alexa, are you here?
[applause] Pamela Michael: You need your ribbon on in order to read.
[laughter] Alexa Beaver: Thank you.
I stand on the moon Looking at the big, round, blue Earth.
And I'm going to eat it very, very slowly.
[laughter] [applause] Robert Hass: Alexa, when I read this I thought,
timing, she's got a great sense of timing.
Would you read it -- it's short enough,
would you read it one more time.
Alexa Beaver: I stand on the moon Looking
at the big, round, blue Earth.
And I'm going to eat it very, very slowly.
[laughter] [applause] Robert Hass: Wonderful, dear, thanks so much.
Thank you so much.   Pamela Michael: Thank you.
Robert Hass: You also read it very, very slowly.
Female Speaker: Did she get her certificate, Bob?
Robert Hass: Just perfectly.
And here is your River of Words certificate.
[applause] Our next reader is Thornton Blease.
Thornton, are you here?   Pamela Michael: There he is.
Robert Hass: Thornton is 13.
He's -- let me find your poem for you here.
Thornton Blease: [unintelligible] I got it right here.
Pamela Michael: Oh, he got it, okay.   Robert Hass: Oh, okay.
Great. Thornton Blease: Well, I'm not afraid.
I think. Pamela Michael: Get real close to the mic.
Thornton Blease: Okay.   Can y'all hear me?
I'd first like to say something.
I'm not trying to brag, I'm not trying to --
I would like to say that painting pictures
with words is a sort of ambition to me.
It's just not like something I do for fun.
It's a mission.
It's a journey for the painting pictures with words and bringing it
through and sending it out.
I write novels and all sorts of stuff.
Bringing this world to words into an existence, flowing through.
The pen is my emblem and all you wonderful writers out there know
that the pen is your emblem, too, bringing out the spirit in you,
revealing yourself and finding your inner strength, your true spirit.
Discovering that you really have this --
you may not be strong physically but you're strong inside
with great power inside yourself
to bring this world, the words, its life.
But anyway, ancient language.
I'd first like to say something about it.
My writing advisor wanted me to take out the dragon.
Why? Because, to make it more environmental.
But anyway.   [laughter] I never did, and it won.
[laughter] Okay.   I'm going to start.
I'm going to start.
The dragon's wings wave across the brazen, blue sky,
Carving into the clouds the story of the world
And the ancient tongue of fire.   On the ocean shore the story
of the sea Is written along the cool brown sands
In the ancient language of water.
At high noon the lurking shadows linger Resting upon the green,
glassy glen.   Lays a comparison to the early morn
With twist shades [unintelligible] itself And swings
into ancient language of light.
Before you clap I want to say something else about water.
And yes, the ancient language, too.   It's like this dead language.
I mean, all the technology we have today, computers,
TV is destroying this ancient language and taking it away
from us and making it forgotten.   At least dragon here knows.
But anyway, the water part, the most important.
Now we're -- the earth never makes the some water.
I'm just trying to say something.
We're using the same water -- oh, by the ways, your kids might
as well not listen to this, but we're using the same water drunk
by the dinosaurs, used by the Greeks and many others.
Anyway, so you can all paint pictures with words and keep that up
and prevail on your journey.   Pamela Michael: Thank you, Thornton.
[applause] Wait, you got to get your certificate.
I have to say something about Thornton.
Stay here a minute, Thornton.
Thornton has been entering River of Words since he was six years old
and he, he sends in multiple entries, and we actually talked
about it when I finally met him this week.
He sends them in separate envelopes so I said, "Please,
put them all in one envelope, save a tree."
But I look forward every year to receiving his work.
He has the most wonderful gift with words.
Sometimes his poems were so imaginative and out there
that you had to read them a lot of times to find the meaning,
but the meaning is always there.
He's an extraordinarily gifted young man, and we are so happy
to finally meet you and to honor you, Thornton.
Thornton Blease: You're all gifted all yourselves, too.
[laughter] [applause] Thornton Blease: It's true.
Robert Hass: Thornton is home schooled
and his teacher is his mother, Valerie, who is here.
Valerie. Thank you.   And congratulations.
[applause] Also, great hat, Thornton.
[laughter] Our next reader is from Bethesda, Maryland,
Everett Hutter, are you here?   Everett? Come on up here.
Pamela Michael: And look, we got a stool.
I bet you're five.   Are you five?
I thought so.   Everett Hutter: No, five and a half.
Pamela Michael: Five and a half.   Robert Hass: Five and a half.
[laughter] [unintelligible] Pamela Michael: No,
[unintelligible] when you've got to read.
Robert Hass: Come on up here.   Pamela Michael: Can you read?
No? Okay. Robert Hass: Can you say your poem out loud?
Pamela Michael: Do you know your poem?
Okay. Get it.
Everett Hutter: Things that are red, Sleeping in my parents' bed,
Books I have read, My dog when she is fed Thinking thoughts in my head.
[laughter] [applause] Pamela Michael: Why don't you read it, Bob.
Robert Hass: We're going to give you your certificate and I'm going
to say it once again, okay, for people.
This is five favorite things from a five-year-old.
So each of you now has the job, he's suggested a new poetic form.
I have to list 68 favorite things.
[laughter] Some of you 30 favorite --
everybody go home and do this as an exercise in celebration
of being alive on the earth.
This one goes: Things that are red, Sleeping in my parents' bed,
Books that I have read, My dog when she is fed,
Thinking thoughts in my head.   Thank you, Everett, very much.
Thanks for being here.   [applause] Thanks for your poem.
Our next young poet is Madeline McGrigg.
She's from Denver, Colorado, and she's seven years old.
She's from -- her teacher is Karen Johnson.
Madeline McGrigg: Days of glory.
Something to write about, Something to sing about, Something to think
about In the clouds above us in the night sky, Over the stars
and past the moon, Past the days of glory.
[applause] Robert Hass: I really love the way this kind of starts
as a list and then it just opens up to glory.
Would you just say it for us one more time.
Madeline McGrigg: Something to write about, Something to sing about,
Something to think about In the clouds above us in the night sky
Over the stars and past the moon, Past the days of glory.
Robert Hass: Thanks, dear, thanks very much.
[applause] Pamela Michael: Here you are.
That's for you.
Robert Hass: Our next reader who came to us from Bath,
Maine is Emma Moorhead, and Emma wrote a kind
of poem called a pantoum.   Emma, are you here?
Pamela Michael: Here she comes.   Robert Hass: Here she comes.
Emma Moorhead: Thank you.   Thank you.
"Kennebec Pantoum" Steam rolls off the river,
Snow slides down its banks And stifles brown grass.
Snow slides down its banks, Old leaves dance
on brown grass Leaving the maples lonely.
Old leaves dance on frosted rooftops, Leaving the maples lonely
With the weight of winter.
Frosted rooftops sag and leak With the weight
of winter Along my stony Kennebec.   Thank you.
[applause] Robert Hass: Just a gorgeous poem.
Did all of you kids hear -- this little --
she calls it Kennebec pantoum.
A pantoum is a folk song form that comes from Malaysia,
and some English poets got interested in it in the 19th century
because they loved the kind of turning and turning of its sound,
which you were able to make into the feeling of the turning and turning
of nature in a most magical way.
The trick of the poem, as you can hear, is in the first line,
steam rolls off the river, snow slides down its banks.
The second line of a stanza becomes the first line of the next stanza.
So her second stanza begins snow slides down its banks,
old leaves dance on brown grass.
And then the third stanza is old leaves dance on frosted rooftops
and then the frosted rooftops turn into frosted rooftops sag and leak.
So it's one thing turning into another turning into another
and then she ends it by bringing back to her beloved place in Maine
with the last line of the poem.
It's just a knockout what you did with this,
dear, so let's hear it again.   Emma Moorhead: Okay.
[applause] Steam rolls off the river,
Snow slides down its banks And stifles brown grass.
Snow slides down its banks, Old leaves dance
on brown grass Leaving the maples lonely.
Old leaves dance on frosted rooftops Leaving the maples lonely
With the weight of winter.
Frosted rooftops sag and leak With the weight
[applause] Robert Hass: Thank you, congratulations.
Thank you very much.
Our next reader is from Silver Springs, Maryland, Ruben Moreno.
Are you here, Ruben?   Pamela Michael: There he is.
[applause] Robert Hass: Ruben is from Saint Andrews Apostle School.
Ruben Moreno: "The Pond Behind My House" The pond behind my house Sits
quiet, rippling, shallow and dark Like her siblings,
the rivers, ocean and lakes.
They love a rain and fresh melting snow.
She fears the sun, a slow, hot demise And thirsts
for water, the random revival.
A sliver of calm tucked into new urban sprawl.
Fish, turtles and frogs, they make her their home.
She resides in a willow just bigger than she is,
[applause] Robert Hass: You know, we loved several things
about the way you wrote this poem and one of them is, is the sense,
the rhythm of cause and effect in it is she fears the sun, a slow,
hot demise and thirsts for water, a random revival.
Sliver of -- turtles and frogs, they make their home.
We just loved the way, the quiet, meditative way you made this --
your own world come alive in this writing.
So would you read it for us once more.
Ruben Moreno: The pond behind my house Sits quiet, rippling, shallow
and dark Like her siblings, the rivers, ocean and lakes.
They love a rain, and fresh melting snow.
She fears the sun, a slow, hot demise And thirsts
for water, a random revival.
A sliver of calm tucked into new urban sprawl.
Fish, turtles and frogs, they make her their home.
She resides in a willow just bigger than she is,
[applause] Robert Hass: Thanks, Ruben.
One of the really -- one of the great American poets create --
one of the creators of the Harlem Renaissance is a poet named Langston
Hughes, who as a young man had a job as a bellhop
in a hotel in Washington, D.C..
And the first poem of his to get any kind of attention was called
"The Negro Speaks of Rivers," and it begins,
"I've known rivers, ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers" is the second line
of that poem.
And there's a feeling for me, Ruben, in your poem, of that.
I thought about that line as I was reading you.
The pond behind my house sits quietly rippling, shallow
and dark has that same feel of contemplative depth
that young Langston Hughes got in his poem.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers,
we thought this young man has a deep soul.
He's going to make, he's going to make sounds.
Our next reader is not here.
Samah Rash, whom we met yesterday, is a very gifted young woman.
Pamela Michael: Her dad is going to receive her stuff--
so you could read her poem.
Robert Hass: Yeah, it's not marked here.
Can you usually find it.   We met her yesterday.
She's off to -- Pamela Michael: To Iran.
Robert Hass: To Iran on last night's flight.
This is -- she is in the World Community Education Center.
Her teacher is Linda Ingram.   Samah is 11, from Bedford.
"Behind Our School" Behind our school We made a loft in a tree
with six trunks, Found an old railroad nail and a fire poker,
Spent a long time finding branches And cutting them in half.
We called it our chimpanzee nest.
Behind our school You can make forts, Cross a marsh,
Run from hornets, Build a swing, See the source of a little stream,
Lay in a meadow, Explore in the pine needle forest, Look over a cliff,
Spot foxes, Watch out for a bear,
Follow deer tracks Find an old house, Find a creepy old campsite,
Run away from dogs, Come across a waterfall, Slide in the mud,
Climb on fallen limbs, Take a stream walk, and end up swimming in it,
Find an arrowhead, Feel relaxed, calm, tranquil, happy, grateful.
That's Samah Rash, age 11.
[applause] And here's her dad come to receive her --
[applause] And the last of our finalist readers is Alijah Rosario
who is eight years old from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
And her teacher -- Pamela Michael: Is Barbara Strasko.
Robert Hass: Is our amazing, gifted teacher
of the year, Barbara Strasko.
Hi, dear. Pamela Michael: Oh, is this ribbon going to show up on you.
Beautiful dress.
Alijah Rosario: "The Air" The air is something growing inside of me
Like a story about a flower.
Robert Hass: That's it.   That's the whole poem.
[applause] This is the kind of poem that when I started to write we used
to call a skinny poem because it's just a few words
and then a few words and then a few words
and you just did it with such delicacy.
And would you read it once more.   Nice and slow.
Alijah Rosario: "The Air" The air is something growing inside of me
Like a story about a flower.
[laughter] [applause] Robert Hass: Thanks, dear.
Pamela Michael: Alijah's teacher sent me a little video clip
of a news segment that was done on Alijah and one
of our grand prize winners from Lancaster, Yalonda Lockett.
And there's a little story behind your poem
that you told the reporter, do you remember, about what inspired you?
Do you want to tell the audience?
No? [laughter] Were you riding in a car and being --
feeling full of the air -- the wind blowing on you and that's -- yeah?
Is that -- did I get it right?   So you felt the air and you felt
like there was a flower growing inside of you from --
[applause] Let me give you your --
Robert Hass: Sometimes when we meet the children after being amazed
by these poems and we get to hear the stories,
last year one of the young winners had a poem
and I can't quote it exactly but he said, down here in the sewer,
the water flows like the sound of an oboe.
Pamela Michael: The sound of an oboe.
Robert Hass: Like the sound of an oboe.
We thought, wow, where did that come from?
And when we met him and I said, "Where did that come from?"
He said, "My sister plays the oboe."
[laughter] Every year, because our program --
our offices are in Berkeley, California and our home is
in the Library of Congress, we particularly wanted
to honor the kids of Washington, D.C. and their art.
And together with the Friends of Anacostia River,
we've decided to pick one poem each year and specify it
as that year's winner of the Anacostia prize.
In a few more years, we have been going on for 15 years now,
we're going to be able to have a book of poems written by the kids
of Washington about this watershed of the Potomac and the Anacostia.
And the grand prize winner
for the Anacostia this year is Grace Fitzpatrick.
[applause] She's right here.
Pamela Michael: Her whole class is here.
Robert Hass: She's from Saint Peter's school.
Pamela Michael: And her whole class is here.
Robert Hass: And your whole class.   Hey, class, stand up.
[applause] Pamela Michael: And her teacher.
Robert Hass: And her teacher, Sandra Pear [spelled phonetically].
Sandra, would you stand up, please,
so we can see you and admire your work.
[applause] Thanks so much.
Pamela Michael: You get not only a ribbon but a medal.
[laughter] Grace Fitzpatrick: Oh, you guys actually --
Robert Hass: You take that.   Grace Fitzpatrick: Okay.
Oh, dear and lovely river of my dreams.
I watch you sway and sing the world to sleep.
I watch my childhood playing with the fish.
I remember the crystals on the waves.
The wildflowers that I picked in bouquets.
You moan but none can hear your quiet cry.
You flow to town from gentle hills above.
You twist and turn, You slow to quench a thirst.
In winter I see tiny snowflakes fall.
We fail to help you now and in the past.
We fall -- we fail but we stand to try once again.
Some say that only God can make a tree
But rivers can be saved by kids like me.
[applause] Thank you.
Robert Hass: So this poem is written in the form of a sonnet,
and it's called Anacostia Shakespearian,
and it has that grand old rhythm, you can hear it.
And you flow to town from gentle hills above.
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day.
Thou art more radiant and --
so you evoke the Avon and this lovely music.
Sandra, you had to have something to do with this
but your ear, too, had to do with it.
Grace Fitzpatrick: Yeah, our whole class wrote sonnets so, yeah.
Robert Hass: Good work, Sandra.
Would you read it again so we can hear this grand form played out.
Grace Fitzpatrick: Oh, dear and lovely river of my dreams.
I watch you sway and sing the world to sleep.
I watch my childhood playing with the fish.
I remember the crystals on the waves.
The wildflowers that I picked in bouquets.
You moan but none can hear your quiet cry.
You flow to town from gentle hills above.
You twist and turn, You slow to quench a thirst.
In winter I see tiny snowflakes fall.
We fail to help you now and in the past.
We fail but we stand to try once again.
Some say that only God can make a tree
But rivers can be saved by kids like me.
[applause] Pamela Michael: If you want to get your bag.
Grace Fitzgerald: Thank you.   Pamela Michael: And Grace, I have
to tell you something that you don't know.
I'll tell everybody.
I got an e-mail this morning from the editor of a little newsletter
from the Friends of Sausal Creek, which is a creek in my part
of the world, in Oakland, California, and they have asked
for permission to reprint your poem in their newsletter.
And of course, I will give it.   Grace Fitzpatrick: Yes.
Pamela Michael: But this is one of the intended outcomes of River
of Words, is that this wonderful art and poetry can be spread out by use
by groups all over like friends of this creek
and that river and various agencies.
Artwork and poetry was used by the EPA several years ago
for their biannual report to Congress.
Ben [spelled phonetically], what was it you told me,
was it 350A or something?   Male Speaker: 305B.
Pamela Michael: 305B.
So these images and these words are available for use by organizations.
So all of you who do annual reports and newsletters,
please know that there's this wonderful archive
of this work by children.   And Grace, I'll send you a copy.
Thank you.   Grace Fitzpatrick: Thank you.
[applause] [unintelligible] Pamela Michael: This isn't in your program,
but we've worked since our beginnings
with the Anacostia Watershed Society here in the district
and that's the organization that has worked for, how long, 20 years?
20 years to try to bring the Anacostia back to life.
There are parts of it that are a Superfund site, I think,
thanks to the Naval shipyard.
It's a beautiful river, despite all of its challenges.
And one of the ways that Robert Boone, the now-retired founder
of the Anacostia Watershed Society kind of strategized
to get people's awareness raised
and get some action was he started taking kids, school groups,
legislators out in canoes on the river to see for themselves.
And the Anacostia has really made major, major,
major strides in cleaning up.
And I tell you, when you're on that river, except for one little stretch
where you can see the stadium, you would have no idea that you're
in the city even, ospreys are flying overhead and it's just beautiful.
And so not only do we have an Anacostia prize every year
but the Anacostia Watershed Society awards a prize to either a poet
or an artist for their work and it's usually printed on a T-shirt
but this year they did tote bags.   Would you like to come up?
Maurice Hill is here and also Evan -- I keep forgetting your name.
Lee. Why do I -- come up, too.
Lee from Anacostia Watershed Society is here
and this year's Anacostia Watershed prize winner, Maurice Hill.
Welcome. [applause] Do you have a poem or -- oh, it's a painting.
Let's show your -- do you want to just talk about it?
Do you want to show his artwork?   It's now reproduced.
Male Speaker: I just have to say that this is my bag
and I use it a lot as opposed to plastic bags and that was the --
Maurice Hill: Yeah, the bags are recycled so, yeah.
Oh, but I did the River of Words.   This is my second time doing it.
And Lee came, he got me to give it a second try, so thank you to Lee.
Thank you to the whole Anacostia Watershed Society and everybody
who helps with the River of Words competition
for giving us opportunities to do it.
I'd like to congratulate all the kids who did the poems.
Like y'all are amazing.   Like when I was -- [laughter]
When I was your age my poems would have been
about Pokemon cards, Play-Doh and Legos.
[laughter] So big ups to the parents who teach their kids.
You're doing a very good job so --
[applause] Pamela Michael: Thank you.
Maurice, I want to give you a copy of it.
We didn't know you were going to be here so we don't --
Maurice Hill: Right, I didn't either.
Pamela Michael: You didn't either.
Okay. Robert Hass: So if you get a chance to get out on
to the Anacostia and if you're from Washington and get a chance to be
of use either by writing a check or by getting out yourself
or getting others out on to the river, it's an enormous gift.
It's a beautiful river.
I'd better leave it at that because there's so much for us to do.
And now we come to announcing the winner.
Year after year, we have gotten to see an unexpected part
of this program, the way gifted teachers work in this country,
that at certain points, year after year and this town in Michigan
and that town in Florida and this place, there's wonderful poems
and wonderful pieces of art, not all alike,
so that it's clear the teacher doesn't --
isn't imposing some kind of pattern to produce work
but really liberating the kids to do their own work.
And we came to realize almost as soon
as we did this it was very important to honor the teachers.
And Pam, I guess, will say a word now about our teacher of the year.
Pamela Michael: I love this part of the program because a lot
of my work is with teachers and I have come to have --
I have never really been a teacher, although I am teaching teachers,
it's a little dishonest in a way but I have come to have
such enormous respect and affection for them
and the work they do is not only wonderful, it's very hard.
And they need all our support and they need the benefit of,
of great teaching colleges and great materials
and supportive administrations and enough money to do their jobs
and supportive communities, so we honor
and celebrate all of you today.
I first met Barbara Strasko at the workshop, I guess, wasn't it?
Where is Barbara?   I'm sorry.
I thought you were her the other day, too, that's so embarrassing.
I can plead innocence, I don't have my glasses
on but, Barbara, I'm sorry.
[laughter] I first met you at the workshop in Pennsylvania,
I believe; is that right?
No, I first met you -- this is even worse.
Okay. But I have come to know her through the work of her students,
because she has had so much winners and finalists in our contest.
She teaches in Lancaster,
Pennsylvania where she's a literacy coach.
She's also the Poet Laureate of that county.
She's a wonderful poet in her own right.
The work of her students is extraordinary on its own merits,
but I think it's even more extraordinary because she works
in a school and a school district that has some real challenges.
So her students have an enormous respect for her and have learned how
to kind of heal their community and heal themselves
and celebrate their place.
It's a very play space where students work through words.
She's a firm believer in the power of words
to reach people and to transform them.
And I'm going to let her tell you in her own words her philosophy
and her approach to teaching.
And we're very pleased to honor her this year.
We didn't know when we named her teacher of the year
that she's retiring this year.
So this is a wonderful cap to a wonderful career
and the work of an amazing woman.
Barbara Strasko from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
[applause] Barbara Strasko: Thank you.
Hi, everyone.
I really want to thank Pamela Michael and Bob Hass
and everyone connected to the River of Words
and the Library of Congress.
For providing for our students of all ages the opportunity
to share their poems and to be honored like this.
It's just -- it's always amazing.
This is, I think, the third time I have been here.
I'm also very grateful to be honored as a teacher here today.
I want to share a little bit about myself and the place that I live
and the students that I share my life with everyday.
As Poet Laureate of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, as a teacher
and literacy coach and a poet, I see Lancaster as a unique place
of beauty that also has many difficult challenges.
Lancaster City is an urban center, and the school
where I teach has many of the same issues
as the intercity schools across the nation.
It's a high poverty school with a high percentage of students
who have English as their second language.
I'm a literacy coach which is a Title I funded position designed
to help teachers find ways to move our students
Many of the values with which poetry is naturally concerned, language,
beauty, truth and self-expression, are also those
that education should value.
I think it's unfortunate that testing has taken over so much
of the focus in education.
But here we are, we are doing something a little different,
so, happy about that.
When I teach poetry I encourage and model higher level questioning,
higher level discussion, and have shown teachers how capable their
students are when understanding and writing complex poetry.
I'm able to take such dialogues to a different place,
partly because I'm not the classroom teacher.
The students see me not just as a teacher, but also as a writer
of stories and poems, and someone who reads pieces out of my notebook.
And when I share my poems with my students, they recognize
that we are on the same journey.
My own journey took me from a small town in Bucks County,
Pennsylvania to Millersville University,
right outside of Lancaster.
And I chose this college because it had a great reputation
for preparing teachers.
And I knew that -- I knew in high school
that that's what I wanted to do.
After college I, I immediately worked for the school district
of Lancaster, and I was a high school reading teacher,
an early childhood specialist who went into children's homes
and taught them in their homes, a Title I resource room teacher,
a parent educator, ran parenting classes, and then I got a master's
in psychology and became a guidance counselor.
So as a guidance counselor in Fulton School, I spent ten years counseling
and testing and I loved it but I didn't feel
that I could really reach the children in terms of self-expression
and in terms of self-confidence the way I wanted to.
So when I changed to a literacy coach,
and starting teaching writing, I began to see the students as poets
with important words to say and they began to see themselves
as powerful people with important things to say, and they began
to want to say them in artistic and beautiful ways
which further shifted others' perceptions of them.
When I went to Vermont College for an MFA in poetry, I learned a lot
about how to write poetry but I also learned how to teach poetry
from the amazing teachers I had.
And one of those teachers, Natasha Sahai [spelled phonetically],
is here today to help me celebrate.
Adrienne Rich says that a poem is a moment of change
and that is how I see poetry for myself and my students.
In "Proofs and Theories" Louise Gluck calls making art a revenge
in circumstance.
The very act of writing a delicate honest poem can revenge the
harshness of circumstances.
So I began to use my own love of writing poetry
to help others discover the power of poetry as healing
and transcending the everyday world.
Right now, I live on the edge of Lancaster City,
but right on the Conestoga River, and I often use the view
of the river in my writing to help me through difficult times.
When I first decided to try to send poetry written by my students
to the River of Words, I decided to work
in an after-school environmental club at my school.
And in that short workshop Luis Mendez wrote "Waterfall Slam"
and he was in fourth grade.
He had an article in the paper and the experience changed him.
He became one of the most self-confident students
in fifth grade.
And the next year, he was the emcee for the poetry night
that we have at my school.
He was referred to the gifted program.
He went to middle school as an honor student.
And I was impressed by the power of success to bring more success.
Shyann Graham was a grand winner of River of Words in 2007
as a fifth grader and she had been writing poems
on a regular basis since second grade.
And for her, writing was an expression of her inner self,
and a well-needed outlet for some difficult emotions.
And for Shyann poetry can be a lifeline and winning this prize,
I think, helped her see that others could recognize
and value what she felt.
Carlos Alameda was a finalist the same year that Shyann won her prize,
and he wrote his poem in English and Spanish.
And then -- and just a few years before he wrote it,
he wasn't speaking any English.   So that was kind of amazing.
And then he became a part of an after-school group I did,
and he wrote another poem and came back again
to the River of Words as a finalist.
And the first year, he didn't want to read his poem in Spanish
but I insisted that he read it in Spanish and there was a family here
from Puerto Rico who didn't speak English so --
and they came up to him and he realized how important it was
that he read it in both languages.
So then he was invited to the National Book Festival through River
of Words and he read his poems in English and Spanish there.
And I want to say that I just wrote a letter of recommendation for him
for a summer job with this program called Dig It in Lancaster,
and he'll grow -- he's going to be growing organic vegetables
and selling them in an open market.
In his newspaper article, he said that he wanted to be like Mr. Stem,
our school principal, and that didn't really surprise me.
Mr. Stem, our principal, is a great leader who encourages and pushes us
to be the best that we can be.
And when I read the descriptions of Alijah and Yalonda,
you'll meet Yalonda in a little bit, gave in the newspaper
of how they feel when I am teaching them, it really touched me
and I think sometimes it's just my openness and my desire
for their self-expression that comes through to them.
"In order to make art," says Adrienne Rich, "a certain freedom
of the mind is needed, freedom to press on, to enter the currents
of your thoughts like the glider pilot,
knowing that your emotion can be sustained and that the buoyancy
of your attention will not be suddenly snatched away."
So, I think that's important.
I have just a short poem I'm going to read,
and then I have a closing statement.   I'm sorry.
This is called "Four-Year-Olds Respond to Langston Hughes,"
based on an experience teaching them.
How might the rain taste?
They do not speak at first But test the idea with their bodies.
Some open their mouths, Some purse their lips To let there be a kiss
of the rain Like the poem invites.
Some unfold their hands As if to collect the drops
And drink their imaginary nectar.
When pressed for words, what they say is cold,
What they say is silver.   What they say is lullaby.
So, in closing, I wake up several hours each morning and look
at the river and write in my notebook before I go to school
and this practice energizes and inspires me.
When I share my drafts of poems with my students, they recognize
that we are both trying to change and trying to rise
above the often dreary world.
We are lucky, most people don't have time to find beauty,
to express feelings and to make them into art.
We can take an hour or two in a day and rewrite our stories
in a moment of change called a poem.   Thank you very much.
[applause] Pamela Michael:
This is the first year we have ever had medals,
and I really like the idea.   It's like the Olympics.
Barbara Strasko: Oh, okay.
Pamela Michael: Here's your Teacher of the Year medal.
Barbara Strasko: Thank you.
Pamela Michael: And then one of my best friends,
who is a marvelous jeweler, makes, every year,
a special teacher of the year pendant.
Or if we have a male teacher it's a lapel pin.
And it has your name on the back and I cannot read it without my glasses.
Can you? Female Speaker: It says her name,
Barbara Strasko, River of Words.   Pamela Michael: Okay.
And then on the front it says teacher of the year
and there's an apple and an eye.
Barbara Strasko: Oh, that's beautiful.
Pamela Michael: So let me put it on you.
At the San Francisco ceremony that we did in April,
we do a similar ceremony in California every year
at the San Francisco Public Library, there were three people
in the audience wearing these pendants.
We had three former teachers of the year in attendance this year.
This is going to be really hard.
[applause] Barbara Strasko: Thank you so much.
Pamela Michael: And then lots of goodies in there for you.
Thank you, Barbara.   Barbara Strasko: Okay.
Thank you so much.
Pamela Michael: Big hand for Barbara Strasko.
[applause] Robert Hass: So now we come
to this year's grand prize winners in the 4-H categories and we begin
with Quinn Whitlow, who is seven from St. Louis Park, Minnesota.
[unintelligible] Hmm?
Pamela Michael: He's not home schooled.
[applause] Robert Hass: Where are you?
Pamela Michael: Just one second, Quinn.
Quinn Whitlow: "Unseen Secrets" I hide my secrets in the core
of a brick And on the surface of a star.
I tell my secrets to the unseen spirits around me
And the light rays from the sun.
Spirits live where man cannot go In the finest part of space
And inside a velvet mite.
[applause] Robert Hass: When we, when we read this poem somebody said
"Inside a velvet mite," wow, how did he think of that?
[laughter] It's quite wonderful.
That's about as secret as a secret gets, inside a velvet mite.
Would you read it once more for us?
Quinn Whitlow: I hide my secrets in the core of a brick
And on the surface of a star.
I tell my secrets to the unseen spirits around me
And the light rays from the sun.
Spirits live where man cannot go In the finest part of space
And inside a velvet mite.
[laughter] [applause] Robert Hass: And he had memorized his poem.
Sasini Navoda, Vitramatumba [spelled phonetically] Our winner
in the next category is a student of Barbara Strasko's
Yalonda, would you please come up here?
[applause] Yalonda Lockett: It's a letter.
In the dark blue sea, I saw a letter.
It was very small and this is what it said.
I miss you in the dark blue sea.
I love to read but I need help with some of the words.
I need help but I usually read alone.
I read one book about Marvin becoming a king.
Another was about a shark.   Every time he sees legs or an arm,
He goes into a wave where nothing is there.
Sometimes when I am sad, I say I hate my life.
I run away, hide under the covers and nothing is there but my book.
[applause] Robert Hass: You were great and you read it beautifully
and it's a terrifically sad poem in a way.
But like the poems of someone like Emily Dickinson,
you're able to take a sadness that everybody experiences,
especially that one of escape into books.
It's interesting because it's an escape and a liberation
at the same time, and you captured that.
You just nailed it.   So let's hear it one more time.
Yalonda Lockett: It's a letter.
In the dark blue sea, I saw a letter.
It was very small and this is what it said.
I miss you in the dark blue sea.
I love to read but I need help with some of the words.
I need help but I usually read alone.
I read one book about Marvin becoming a king.
Another was about a shark.   Every time he sees legs or an arm,
He goes into a wave and nothing is there.
Sometimes when I am sad, I say I hate my life.
I run away, hide under the covers and nothing is there but my book.
[applause] Robert Hass: Thank you, Yalonda.
Our next reader is from Sarasota, Florida.
Savannah Fehling is 14 -- you still 14, Savannah?
Where are you?   There you are.
Savannah's from Booker Middle School,
and her teacher is Joanna Hapner-Fox.
Joanna's here as well.
[applause] Savannah Fehling: Hi there.
My poem's called Atmosphere.
You gave your words To the dog in the fall Because he was new,
And you were still entertaining the idea Of being an animal-lover.
And then in November, When the lake was starting to get an icy sheen,
You sighed to your boyfriend And let it echo through the rooms,
Even after he had left, And you did not go down to the forest,
Whose bare trees were not welcoming, But familiar, Because you had sat
in the piles of discarded leaves in autumn, Just thinking.
Later it got cold, And you weren't outside, But cooped up by the TV
With all the lights in the house turned off, And your face lit
by the blue light of the screen,
While the weatherman once again announced that there would be snow.
And you do not remember the late fall grass, Just turning brown,
Or the early winter trees, Or when you were five,
And you paid attention to when you tread on brittle twigs,
Because you tried to avoid doing
that To honor the dead [applause] Robert Hass:
When you kids get a chance to read the poems later and look at them,
one of the things you'll see that Savannah did...
You know how usually poems line up on the front margin and go over
and then they're irregular where they end on the other side
and Savannah did the other thing and began the poems so that everyone,
all the lines, would end up that way and it gives a feeling of...
I don't know what you were after.
Savannah Fehling: [inaudible] Robert Hass: Well, what it does is kind
of bring stop, stop, stop in a way that's kind of haunting.
The other thing we like about this poem is just the feeling
that you have a very wry intelligence.
It's smart, line-by-line, and then this fresh, real vivid quality
of living in it too so let us hear you again on Atmosphere.
Savannah Fehling: Atmosphere You gave your words To the dog
in the fall Because he was new, And you were still entertaining the idea
Of being an animal-lover.
And then in November, When the lake was starting to get an icy sheen,
You sighed to your boyfriend And let it echo through the rooms,
Even after he had left, And you did not go down to the forest,
Whose bare trees were not welcoming, But familiar, Because you had sat
in the piles of discarded leaves in autumn, Just thinking.
Later it got cold, And you weren't outside, But cooped up by the TV
With all the lights in the house turned off, And your face lit
by the blue light of the screen,
While the weatherman once again announced that there would be snow.
And you do not remember the late fall grass, Just turning brown,
Or the early winter trees, Or when you were five,
And you paid attention to when you tread on brittle twigs,
Because you tried to avoid doing that To honor the dead.
Robert Hass: Savannah, you know,
the other quality I realized listening was self awareness.
That you were still considering becoming an animal lover.
They say, that's really wonderful quality.
In the 11th-12th grade category, our winner is Skyler Pham.
He's from Opelousa, Louisiana and he's 17 years old.
There was a time in my life When I was the seagull,
swallowing Skin shed from all the flightless nights, Sleepless nights.
And everything Seemed to resonate on the tips of my wings.
Then you came and laid a cold hand On my head,
fever nearly breaking my bones.
"Come on home," you whispered, "the oaks are miserable without you."
And with that you returned to your home of leaves,
Made your bed with bees, and ate berries and seeds.
Meanwhile, I mended thirty pounds of weathered Wings of all colors.
I had been at the edge of town,
Reattaching the chords and breaking the boards.
Carving wood had never been a hobby of mine,
But I carved ten trembling towers that day.
You rose to your feet, as I rose to the top of the heap.
Dusting off the dangling beads, you wrote A piece about the stars,
and the sky, and the clouds.
Then I cried, fell to blistered knees and wept For each word
and rhyme that tickled my ears.   Penitence is it, Sisyphus?
I'd gladly clamber up that horrid hill With you, only you.
[applause] Robert Hass: We were saying, this is not a kid's poem.
This is the real deal in that way
and energy I thought was the quality here and a kind of shamanism.
When you said there was a time in my life when I was a seagull,
you read a few more lines and you believe him after that.
Let's hear it again, please.
Skyler Pham: There was a time in my life
when I was the seagull Swallowing skin shed from all
of the fightless nights, Sleepless nights and everything seemed
to seemed to Resonate on the tips of my wings.
Then you came and laid a cold hand
on my head Fever nearly breaking my bones "Come on home" you whispered,
"the oaks are miserable without you."
And with that, you returned to your home of Leaves made your bed
with bees and ate berries And seeds.
Meanwhile I mended 30 pounds of weathered Wings of all colors.
I had been at the edge of the town Reattaching the cords
and breaking the boards.
Carving wood had never been a hobby of mine
But I carved ten trembling...
[break] ...the sky and the clouds Then I cried,
fell to blistered knees and wept for each word
and rhyme That tickled my ears.   Penitence is it, Sisyphus?
I'd gladly clamber up That hard hill with you, only you.
Robert Hass: So I think the next part, Pam,
I'm going to let you read.
Pamela Michael: We're going to have a few words from Ben Grumbles
who was our keynote speaker last year.
Last year he worked with the EPA and was instrumental
in getting us the funding that allowed us to print this book,
which, by the way, all the winners and finalists in River of Words,
you number about a hundred -- a little over a hundred --
a book is sent with a book plate inside that says
that the book was donated to both their school library
and their public library in their name.
And so kids can go to their town library and pull out a book
from the shelf that has their work in it.
It's really kind of wonderful.
So Ben Grumbles at that time was with the EPA, and he,
from the very beginning, had a very deep and visceral understanding
of our mission and the way in which the arts can help people understand
the world around them and particularly the need
for conservation, preservation
and all the things that the EPA works on.
We asked him if he would be on our Board almost immediately
and he couldn't because of his position.
But he has since left the EPA and he's moving next month to Arizona
to be the head of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.
So we've asked him back this year to say a few words again and we'd
like to introduce, just before Ben comes up, just briefly, Dave Evans,
who's Director of the Wetlands Division at the EPA,
who's here representing the man who has temporarily replaced Ben
in his job at the Office of Water who, this year,
continued the tradition Ben started by giving us another grant
to produce this year's book.
I also want to acknowledge John McShane [spelled phonetically],
another of our EPA friends who -- for how many years, John?
Forever? -- [laughter] -- comes, and he's a wonderful photographer.
He takes pictures of the ceremony of the kids and you'll see those
on our Web site as soon as we can get those up.
So thank you EPA and Dave, do you want to just come up a minute and...
[applause] Dave Evans: Thank you, Pam and Bob, it's wonderful
to see the dedication and passion you bring to this program.
It's a treat for me to see that Ben is here, and I will be briefer
than I planned knowing that you're going to want to hear what he says.
I just wanted to say thanks to the Library of Congress,
Center for the Book, and for the River of Words program
for inviting EPA to the award ceremony today.
EPA is a proud sponsor and a partner in the program and,
I can say now in person to Ben, he's the one that made that so,
and it's really good that he's here again today.
And it's also good that now he is not with EPA, he can be a member
of the Board of the program.   That's great.
Just a few words of congratulation to the winners.
Your art and poetry which we heard the best
of this morning, it's a true inspiration.
At EPA, we promote a watershed approach
to manage the country's water resources.
We have many technical publications and tools, educational materials,
to try and affect people up here with the hope
that if they understand these problems better,
it will motivate them to take action.
But your program is a great complement to what we do,
and you approach it in a different way.
From my perspective, the River of Words allows
and really encourages students to explore,
interpret their local watersheds.
Its success adds directly to the creativity and the passion
that you young writers bring to the local environment.
We see the mountains, the rivers, the deserts, the wetlands
and the forest, they all come alive in your entries.
We get to see nature through children's clear eyes
which gives us hope for the future.
Through this program, you're reaching people here, in the hearts,
and it's the emotional power of poetry and of art
that really touches people's hearts, and truly inspires them
and I think can inspire them for a lifetime.
So we sure hope the young artists that are here today and all those
that have entered will continue to make connection
to the place they live in and especially, from my perspective,
the water resources around them.
In the words of a very famous American, George Washington Carver,
and this is a quote, "Young people, I want to beg of you always
to keep your eyes open to what Mother Nature has to teach you.
By so doing, you will learn many valuable things every day
of your life."
So students here, from the earliest grade schools
to the last reader heading off to college, I'm sure, soon,
you have so many talents and you have a lot of opportunities
on how you apply your knowledge and skills in the years to come.
Just last night, about a block away, I was happy to be able
to participate in the Environmental Law Institute's Annual Wetlands
Award program.
It's in its 20th year this year, and there scientists, educators,
land owners, state managers, conservationists
and community leaders are all recognized
for their wetlands protection accomplishments.
As I looked out and looked up at the students being recognized today,
it would be wonderful if in 20 or 30 years to learn that one
of them is being again recognized,
this time for their adult accomplishments
and contributions to the environment.
The natural world really needs your help.
So, congratulations to all the winners.
[applause] Pamela Michael: And now,
our newest Board member, Ben Grumbles.
[applause] Ben Grumbles: Thank you.   Thanks. Thanks, Dave.
And Connie?   I see you back there, too.
John, thanks as always for helping to secure the people's library
and this room for this great ceremony and Bob?
Rats roaming down here.
Water flowing like music from the oboe.
[laughter] Jack Baker, age 7, Denver, Colorado You know,
that was his poem about sewers.
Down here, underground-- [break] It's about raising awareness
about all those important parts of the infrastructure
that keep our watersheds healthy and our bodies healthy.
But anyway, that was one of my favorites.
Charles Kuralt said when he wrote a book about America, he said,
"When I started to think about America,
I thought of state lines and highways.
But as I got to know her better, I thought of rivers.
America is a great story,
and there's a river on every page of it."
There's a poem for every river, and every creek,
and a poet for every watershed, and I look around
and I see a room filled with poets representing watersheds throughout
the country and the world, and it's just a real honor to be part
of the River of Words Board of Directors but to be part
of this ceremony, this effort.
My other favorite line is from Teddy Roosevelt in the City of Presidents,
one of the great green Presidents of the country, and he said,
"There is nothing more practical than the preservation of beauty."
And that's what poetry is all about.
It's observing and recording in your own truthful way and that helps
to preserve it because it raises awareness and that leads to action
of legislators and regulators
and adjudicators next door in the Supreme Court.
So all of you, you students and poets, with parents and friends,
keep writing that poetry, keep painting those pictures
because that's really what motivates all of us to preserve our beauty.
Pamela mentioned that I'm moving to Arizona.
Where's Emma Moorhead?   Is Emma still here?
Emma, I want you to know that when I am sweltering in 115 degrees
in Phoenix, I'm going to be thinking of frosted rooftops.
[laughter] The last thing I'll say is, moving from here to Arizona
and seeing the beauty of Arizona and the water.
Sometimes you have to look harder for it, but it's there.
It's in those cracks and crevices.
It pointed me to one of the poems that's
in this year's winning collection and it's a poem called Rattlesnakes
by Cole Morales [spelled phonetically] ,
age 7, from California.
Rattlesnakes are packed with lots of colors, No legs and bad habits.
They have tails to shake at you So you won't die.
[laughter] So I'm looking at a room filled with rattlesnakes,
poets who have beautiful tails, shaking them so we won't die,
so we'll see the beauty and the importance
of preserving our environment, connecting ourselves,
re-connecting ourselves to our watersheds.
So, poets, rattlesnakes, keep shaking those tails.
We know the worth of water when the well runs dry.
That's what Ben Franklin said and I would add that we know the wealth
of watersheds because poets never lie.
They just keep shaking their tails.   Thank you, all, poets and artists.
[applause] Pamela Michael: Thank you, Ben.
Let's see.
Now we're moving on, and I know, particularly for the kids
in the audience this seems like a very long day, and it kind of is,
but we have a lot of things to share with you and we don't want anyone
to be left out so we're moving along.
But we have some more adults to thank and speak for a minute
and then we're going to be moving on to the art portion.
Then we're going to be showing you all of the art winners
on slides this year and I hope you all saw the Grand Prize Winners
and the art of the children who are here in the hallways as you came in.
River of Words has managed, for 14 years, to bring this group
to Washington every year which, for a small organization
like ours, is quite a challenge.
We're supported mostly by foundations --
we write grants and convince them that our work is worthy
of their support -- and by individual donations
and in today's economy, and it's always been hard,
partly because we combine environmental education
with arts education and, you know,
the environmental funders are saying what's all this poetry and the arts
and the arts funders are saying what's this about watersheds.
So, it's not always easy and this year, because of the economy,
it was really a challenge and this almost didn't happen, to be candid.
It did happen because of two amazing companies, two airlines,
who provided tickets to get our --
Southwest airlines provided 20 tickets to get our staff and winners
and families here from all over the country and Emirates Airlines,
through the offices of the now former U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka,
Robin Blake, and through actually the Sri Lankan government, too,
as I understand it, approached Emirates Airlines
to fly our last year International winner,
who we couldn't get here last year but we brought her this year
from Sri Lanka, which is very far away, which you know.
So I just wanted to bring them up to thank them publicly
and to hand them a book and extend our thanks to them.
We're also honored today to have in the audience the Deputy Chief
of Mission from the Sri Lankan Ministry,
Ambassador Mitarahi [spelled phonetically] .
[applause] ...and also with him is the Minister of Economics
from the Embassy, Said Milani [spelled phonetically] who's been
very helpful.
[applause] So, John, would you like to come
[applause] ...with our thanks, very much.
Would you like to say a word or two?
John: I'll just everyone did a fantastic job on the poetry.
There's 33,000 employees at Southwest, and we all love poetry.
[laughter] It's just an honor to be here and I thank you.
[applause] Pamela Michael: And from Emirates,
we have Mitch Myers [spelled phonetically].
Yeah. [applause] Do you want to say a couple of words?
Mitchell Myers: Sure.
On behalf of Emirates, I'd like to congratulate all the winners
and finalists in this wonderful program.
We're very happy to be able to provide transportation
for the family from Sri Lanka and, again,
I'd like to just say thank you and I hope you have a great day.
Thanks. Pamela Michael: Thank you.
[applause] This is a little bit about what we do.
And I don't have my glasses on,
so I can't even read it, but you can, hopefully.
We do a lot of teacher training.
This is along the Merced River, lovely spot.
This is a huge sign as we drove into Salmon, Idaho to do a workshop.
We didn't realize we'd be greeted with such a wonderful sign.
That's a very, very small town on the Salmon River.
This is teacher training in Zimbabwe and we encourage teachers
to get the kids outside, whether it be the school yard or local park.
A lot of wonderful things happen in these workshops.
Because art and science are both based on observation,
our curriculum really stresses the power
of observation -- honing those skills.
I'm just going to go through these really quickly.
These are some of our kids.
We're very big on recognizing kids as Barbara discussed, success
and recognition for achievement has a remarkable power
to transform kids' lives and we believe
in really recognizing their efforts.
We were part of the World Environment Day several years ago.
That's in San Francisco, in San Francisco Hall.
Here we are at the Library of Congress
with one of our previous winners.
This is Caroline Maria Woods-Majia [spelled phonetically],
who's now 14 years old and was reading in San Francisco recently.
This was earlier in the program.
There's John Cole with Bob and one of our winners
with the Capitol in the background.
This is our winner from Afghanistan who, after three years,
we finally got a visa for.   He's there with his father.
He had a tour of the Capitol.
We managed to find a Dari- speaking Capitol policeman
who gave them a tour in their own language, which was wonderful.
He had a visit with the Afghan Embassy.
Those are kids at our ceremonies, reading our anthologies.
These are some of our books published by real publishers.
We do the anthologies ourselves every year,
but we have a couple of books in full color.
We have a gallery in California devoted
to children's art exclusively.
We'd love it if you're in the area to have you visit.
This is some of what it looks like.   We do an art making event.
At River of Words, we do family activities there, classes.
Here we go.
So these are the finalists of this year's River of Words
and these will be online in the next few weeks.
You can go look at all of them if you want.
This was our first entry ever from Slovenia.
[clear] Remember Bucky Beaver?
[laughter] We receive more and more photography entries and, in fact,
this is the first year ever
that we've given a Grand Prize to a photograph.
You'll see Scott...
[clear] I thought I'd hear a bunch of "aws" when that one came on.
This is one of our entries from Pakistan.
This is from actually an Afghan boy.   We have a long-standing relationship
with the Hizarrah [spelled phonetically] youth
who fled the Taliban in Afghanistan.
They're from Bamayan [spelled phonetically] the place
where the giant Buddhas were destroyed.
Age 5. This is one of our finalists from California.
I love the profile and the front view.
[laughter] This is on the cover of your program and that's cut paper.
The white spot is where she cut it out and folded it back
so there's negative and positive there.
Here's a very poignant one from another Afghan youth.
Look at the moonlight on that water.
Ah, here's one of our Sri Lankan finalists.
Is this one of your students?
Yes. Our Grand Prize winner from last year,
our international winner's mother, is an art teacher
and when we started getting entries from Sri Lanka,
we never had elephants before entered into the contest before.
The work of your students is just remarkable, just remarkable.
This was on the back of a paper bag.
It has a kind of forlornness that we liked.
[clear] Another Sri Lankan one.
[clear] Okay, now we're starting with the kids who are here.
This is Morgan Dennis [spelled phonetically].
She's from Atlanta, Georgia.
[clear] [applause] Thank you and I'm so sorry.
Okay, now we start with the Grand Prize winners.
[applause] Ah, Miranda Gaffney [spelled phonetically].
Miranda, were you able to make it?
No. [clear] We weren't sure they were going to be able to make it.
I know Markesha's [spelled phonetically] here.
Oh, where is she?   [clear] Markesha here?
Oh, come on up.
Welcome. [applause] [clear] Where are you from?
Markesha: Missouri Pamela Michael: Missouri, all the way from Missouri.
Here's your-- [applause] [break] Ah, let's see.
Oh, now we start with the Grand Prize winners.
Oh, did Alexandra come back?   Yes. Come on up.
[applause] Alexandra: Hi.
I'm Alexandra and I believe in mermaids and this painting is one
of my best because I got teased about it a lot afterwards
and I put a lot of work into that painting and I think that work went
on that paper, it wasn't just paint, it was also hope
and love and believing in myself.   And, well, that's really all.
Pamela Michael: That's a lot.
[applause] That's a very nice painting.
Thanks. So now we're going to go on to the Grand Prize winners.
In your program, Sasini is listed.
She's also a finalist this year, but she's our International winner
from last year, so we'll do her when she comes
up for her International Prize.
Here's a killdeer with four eggs by Jake Barrios [spelled phonetically]
from Watsonville, California.   Jake do you want to come up?
Where are you?
[applause] Jake Barrios: I drew this bird because it's a nice bird.
[laughter] Pamela Michael: Anything more?
Nope? Okay.
[applause] He was at our San Francisco ceremony, so that's why,
when I was desperately looking for his certificate.
It wasn't there.
Erik Raul Oliva from Chico, California did an amazing bear.
[applause] Erik?   Erik Oliva: I'm Erik Oliva.
I'm from Chico, California.
I drew this bear, because-- he is my favorite animal.
[laughter] [applause] Pamela Michael: Thank you.
I like bears too, Erik.
So next is the first ever photograph chosen as a Grand Prize winner
in the River of Words contest, Night Flower by Scott Styslinger.
Look at the original out in the hallway.
No slide is ever going to do this justice.
You've got to look at it in the hallway, in the original.
Scott, want to come up?
[applause] Scott, would you like to say something?
Scott Styslinger: No.
Pamela Michael: Okay, let me dig out your certificate.
There you are.   Congratulations.
Scott Styslinger: Thank you.
[applause] Pamela Michael: And then our Category Four
which is grades 10 through 12.
Our Category Four winner in art-- [break] ...Remembered Water,
which is such a beautiful title and we used it on the invitation
for our ceremony here today so...   Want to come up and say a few words?
Eunsil Choi: I painted the crack [spelled phonetically] art
because the Georgia has no water there.
So when I go to any dam or lake, the art is like this.
So I thought they were the fish over there and here.
I wanted the fish come back to there.
That's why I drew like this.
Pamela Michael: Wonderful.   Thank you.
Congratulations.
[applause] Eunsil's from Korea originally.
Thank you so much.
Now we have our 2009 International Prize winner.
There's a kind of an inside joke to the fact that Atalanta,
she is from Canada with her beautiful swan.
In the years that River of Words has had an International Prize,
which is not the full time -- maybe 12 years, our winners have
for some reason come from places like Shanghai, Bangladesh,
Azerbaijan, Afghanistan,
and the Board is always saying why don't we ever have any winners
from Canada or Mexico?
In other words, not so expensive to bring to Washington, D.C. [laughter]
So this year when -- and we don't know these things
when we're judging them -- but when we saw where Atalanta was from,
it was like, oh, close by.
So we're really honored and delighted,
particularly because of her proximity to Washington,
D.C. to give Atalanta Shi the International Prize for 2009.
Atalanta, do you want to come up and receive your award?
Would you like to talk about your painting?
Atalanta Shi: I just want to thank River of Words
for giving me this chance to participate and win this prize.
[applause] Pamela Michael:
Sasini Navoda from Vitramatumba [spelled phonetically]--
did I say it right?   I've been practicing...
[break] Sasini was our International Prize winner last year
for this beautiful painting of elephants.
[applause] And this year, she's a national finalist
for this beautiful painting.   Said, would you come up?
He's going to come up and do some translating for us because we want
to hear the story in her own words
and she doesn't speak much English so...
[applause] Sasini Navoda: I'm from Sri Lanka.
I like to draw animals very much.
[laughter] [applause] Pamela Michael: We didn't even need you.
So this is your certificate from last year and then,
let's get a picture, and then you have our certificate from this year,
too, and we have lots of prizes for you.
Thank you, so much.
[applause] Female Speaker: This has been a presentation
of the Library of Congress.
Visit us at loc.gov.   [end of transcript]