2022 Poetry Month Competition Winners

  1. Adult 1st Place
  2. Adult 2nd Place
  3. Adult 3rd Place
  4. Teen 1st Place
  5. Teen 2nd Place
  6. Child 1st Place
  7. Child 2nd Place

However Deep, However Wide

by Kendall Thurman


However deep, however wide,

However strong the surging tide

Of holy pain, of broken dreams,

However thick the darkness seems;


A solitary match that’s lit

Illuminates the darkest pit,

And flickering flame to kindling set,

Carbonaceous breath begets.


Then roaring, soaring, licking light

Consumes and blooms into the night

A fresh supply of wood to toss

Are splinters from the crimson cross


That held the Lamb, whose bleeding back

Was laid upon the ruthless rack.

Then spotless, wordless Word was burned

And burning, ash to ashes earned.


Except, from ash as phoenix grows,

With healing in His wings He rose.

And now the torturous timber cruel

Becomes the fount of endless fuel.


Which brings us to the feeble spark

Struck hopelessly amidst the dark,

What fragile stroke to briefly see

Reveals in perpetuity!


A grove, a world, an endless source

To stoke the blaze, remove remorse,

And light the path to Light, the Path,

To endless lighted path.


picture of a starry sky from bottom of a canyon

Image via pixabay