Insipred by Georgia O'Keefe’s “Black and Purple Petunias”

SHASTA BIOREGION PRIZE
(honoring a student from the San-Francisco Bay Area)

I don’t think you understand
The beauty that is darkness
The overdone flamboyance of light
Do you realize
You take for granted
The absence of light?
Velvety blue black
And a purple undertone
Subtle colors are under the layers of night
They make stifled sounds underneath
The pitch black
Full petals grace my green shaft
Green for life,
Violet for majesty,
Black for sleeping passions
Round and full, mature and blossomed
Eye-catching amidst gaudy sky,
sun
and fire-painted little flowers
Richness in the dark should draw you in
Voluptuous petals seem as though they beckon to you
Ready to wrap around you
Lead you into their world of eternal sleep
The dark is restful
Soothing to the eye
The eye which is burned by red and yellow roses
And the dancing baby blue of the sky
The sky’s dance makes you tired, doesn’t it?
Let the darkness hold you…
Let it own you for just one long night….

Adriane Pontecorvo, age 13
Lowell High School
San Francisco, CA
Teacher: Terri Bookwalter/Susan Terence( California Poets in the School)