Literary and Artistic Contest 2021

LITERARY AND ARTISTIC CONTEST 2021

Welcome to the 2nd annual Artistic and Literary Contest winner page for the people Vinfen serves. This year, we received over 65 submissions and each one captured the individual’s creative spirit.

We invite you to view the artistic and literary winning works below. Congratulations to everyone who participated!

AMATEUR LITERARY WINNERS

FIRST PLACE: STACEY CUMMINGS

SECOND PLACE: JOANNE SCHUMAN

THIRD PLACE: JAKE COSTA

Responsibility

The falcon scorched with its long burning talons. A talent it knew only instinctually. It flew to the branch and gripped as it landed. The flames erupted from its feet swirling around the tree branch and up some of the trunk of the tree.

The wind was blowing and the flames were stoked. Acorns fell from beneath its grasp. There were two acorns that fell in a burning heap of fire. They landed on the ground and set some leaves ablaze at the bottom of the tree.

As the falcon gripped again it further scorched the branch it had landed on. It walked step by burning step like a phoenix on fire out to the end of the branch. At the end of the branch two more acorns fell in a flaming mass to the ground. They puffed with smoke as they hit the dirt.

Swirls of ash raised up as dry leaves on the ground caught fire and smoldered slowly. The falcon flew again, releasing itself from its grasp on the branch. Still smoldering the small thin branch began to disappear as the falcon got further and further from its perch there. It felt free in the cool soothing air.  

PROFESSIONAL LITERARY WINNERS

FIRST PLACE: MIKE NATALE

SECOND PLACE: MIMI CLARK

Mimi Clark's Hope Story

In the morning of Thursday, April 8^th, the day after my mom’s birthday, I saw a rainbow. It was on the outside of my stepfather’s bathroom window. The sky was pink, purple, and blue.

It shone its lights and colors into the family room while I meditated before I did my yoga. I felt happy and surprised that I took a picture of it with my camera so I can remember its bright colors because they make me feel peaceful.

THIRD PLACE: REBECCA BELLA RICH

Poems: March to June, 2021

Transcribed by sister Jessica with assistance from niece Abigail Sturley and brother-in-law Steve Sturley and support of niece Rachel Sturley and nephew Bram Sturley

March 1, 2021

My house loves to party on
Cakes, cookies, ice cream, donuts,
The whole bit.

I heard a lot of teachers at Gateway have moved on now.
A lot of them left and retired.
Thank God Stephanie didn't.
Most of them were student teachers,
Or went back to their jobs
Or died of the pandemic.

In the meantime we threw a party
For all the ones who did not leave or quit or move on.
And then we bring in cakes and cookies
For the ones who do move on and leave.

Love the Halloween, love to dress up, love Purim.
We love cookies, we love The Munsters
And we’re always arguing whether they are related to me.
I feel like they are related.
I seem to love scary funny creatures.

We met a lot of fairies and witches,
Pirates, giants, mythological creatures at Gateway too.
Definitely.
And some are made into worry dolls,
Like I make worry dolls and add wings.
Doesn't that sound like a great idea?

I live in a house with four people
We love to write, we love to watch Fuller House,
We love to watch TV or movies, play games, and
Zumba.

I'm still trying to find out where I come from, what my grandfather did, what our people did. Some of them came from the sea and some of them came from the land.
So maybe they would be sea and land creatures.

An island where there are wild horses is where I come from and is where I want to go to.
It seems like a place of freedom
An island of wild horses where they eat and drink and hang out with the people
Jumping around in a field of grass with a few trees and flowers

On Halloween they jump over little pumpkins
And in summer they jump over hay and straw
Then everybody goes swimming
They jump around and drink the water and play in water and throw it on each other.
Then they have little fairies riding on them
Like pixies or little Tinkerbells that light up and have pixie dust

March 15, 2021

Doing a lot of cataloging...
The Cat and the Hat
Sam I Am
I Do Not Like Green Eggs and Ham
Little House on the Prairie
Nancy Drew
Little Women - Amy - favorite character almost drowned, I suppose she was pretty looking
Heidi
Winnie the Pooh
Romeo & Juliet
Anne Frank
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Mary Poppins
Little House on the Prairie
Wizard of Oz
The Wind in the Willows

March 28, 2021

The world is very pink
So let's not fall in a sink
Because sinks are dark, deep, and we do not want to stay in them. Definitely not.
Because we would explode up to heaven and shatter into 50 hundred pieces.
Pink, safe, and
We will not sink because
We are happy, cool, and
Fresh
Because we are happy where we are
To impress the whole world

April 5, 2021

Starting point - My Favorite Things
RBR’s musical themes
Passion fruit sorbet
Sea shells - pretty
Seals
Mermaids
Mango smoothies
Sea turtles, dolphins
Princess warriors
Sea horses
Unicorns
(Narwhals - what are those - from John)
Flutes and harps that float through the air
Magical creatures
(Electrical eels - from Barbara - sounds cool)
A firebird that flies through the air - a phoenix and a flying carpet
A carpet that flies through the air
Ooh...Fireflies, sounds good.

April 10, 2021

Well there is a magical island filled with fairies who have pet frogs who jump around in the pond.
Well then they invite their friends over for a magical picnic
Where all the friends who were invited
Wear beautiful dresses and beautiful wings on their backs and party all night.

They have animals jumping around
Unicorns, fairies.

But the evil witch turned them all to stone
And they had to turn themselves back.
They flinged some blue powder on them all and it filled the air
The air filled with blue dust and turned very colorful
And the blue dust made them change bodies
So the animals would change into different animals all the time.

They threw the evil witch in the pond and melted her.
The frogs and the other fish and stuff
Got in the way of the witch and bit her ass and she got mad.
The turtles all jumped around and bit the witch
And the witch got mad and decided she couldn’t do anything
And they all jumped around all over the place
And then they sunk.
The water got deep and they sunk. (All of them)

After everybody saved everybody
(except for the ones who sunk)
The good fairy came
And saved them all
And everybody did not remain frozen
Because they got saved.

I just want everybody
To go on partying.

April 10, 2021

There once was a village filled with lots of animals
And they were having a lot of fun.
They lived in the village
And had a lot of fun
And they partied all over the place.

And one day they decided
They were going to play a big game of football and other sports
Hockey
A sports party
And win the day
Because no one would bother them as long as they weren't
Harming anybody

But one day someone discovered them,
Someone who was not involved,
And thought they were partying too much
And were going to put a stop to them playing around

Then the authorities got mad at them
So they couldn't keep up their partying.
So they had to find other ways to entertain themselves

But that did not happen because they could not think of anything.
So everybody was so mad at each other that everything went wrong

The lights went out
And then they decided fighting was not doing them any good.
So finally everybody decided the fighting was not worth it
And they all stopped

April 25, 2021

Once upon a time
There was a girl who loved to fly.
Her dream was to fly
So one day she found her way new out of a genie bottle.
She took an airplane
And jumped out of the door.
She had a parachute
And she shot down from the
Sky to earth.
And she flew down with a lot of fairies
And they all bounced around on the earth
And they enjoyed jumping around
And they shot up and down up and down
Around and around like a big top
Turning and twisting
With sparks flying out.
The big top spinning up and down, up and down
Flew all around the whole world
And never stopped.

May 3, 2021

Sea Fairies:
They fly through the river
Through the water like it's no one’s business
Hoping that no one would find them
‘cause it would be bad if they did
Because no one would know what to do with them
Because sometimes they were bad,
Did bad stuff I guess.
They could blow the place up.
They were saved by a special law
That they could only fight on the good days,
Not the bad days -
Where things go wrong and everything falls on the floor.
Good days when it stays on the shelf.
So they all lived happily ever after.

May 9, 2021

Mother’s Day
What shall we say about mothers?
That they are the best thing we have in our life
I wonder if that's appropriate to say
Who knows?
But they are the best things we have in our life
They help us feel happy
And good about ourselves
We want to have a lot more of them.

May 16, 2021

Once there was a girl called Rebecca
Who loved to plan picnics
And throw picnics with fairies and other animals
They decided to all fly through the air and land on plants and so forth
And there were also the human animals
And they were all together
And they had a picnic and they ate and they danced
And they partied all night
And in the morning they all flew off to bed.

So check your plants for sleeping people or fairies.

May 17, 2021

There once was a girl called Rebecca
And she owned a big farm with lots of animals on it
One day they all took a picnic
And they all lived happily ever after.
They lived in a jungle somewhere in straw houses with cloth thrown over,
Little tent-like things
And one day the wind came along and blew off the roof
And they all had to get a new house
And then they lived happily ever after.

Summertime
And everybody is playing sports
And having the time of their life.
And the actress from Dirty Dancing, from People Magazine
And she looks a lot more prettier these days,
She looks healthy, probably been on a diet and lost weight
She lives on a big gorgeous hill
In a big gorgeous house with a big gorgeous swimming pool
With lots of patios and umbrellas where people can sit in chairs
She's having the time of her life.
They have a little duck pond in the backyard
With ducks and fish and a garden and a swimming pool.

Then there’s the one on the island somewhere in Mexico
And she was always traveling around and having fun
Brooke Shields

Somewhere in a desert somewhere
There was a little hole in the ground
Filled with lots of worms and caterpillars
And they all lived in the big pond.
Oh, can you send me some more Crest and Sensodyne.

May 17, 2021

There was a guy in space that runs a puppet shop and sells puppets in a store
And everybody comes by in spaceships to buy stuff

Somewhere in the city in New York
They had streets that went over streets
And people were living on the bridges.

Once there was a zoo filled with butterflies
And the people came to visit them
And one day a girl left the door open
And all the bees and butterflies and insects flew out to party
And someone had to put them all away

June 6

Can you send me:
Bionic Woman shampoo -
You know, she’s the one who dies and then they made her special -
Bionic -
Now she wants to sell shampoo that makes the hair
Bouncy, sexy, and clean
And they have Steve Austin who has the bionic eyes
And there is a bionic dog Max
Clothes, Depends, Valentine’s cards, etc.
Activity books, animals, games, water shoes, Lands’ End
Gluten-free donuts and snacks
Ballet slippers, Zumba shoes, make up, nail polish
Trips Unlimited like Hawaii with Drew
Music books, my balalaika and things like that you can play music on

All the places you want to go:
Jordan’s where you can get blueberry muffins
Edaville Railroad
Radio Shack
The American Girl doll place
Madame Tussaud’s wax museum
Dog park, dog racing, Wonderland, Mohegan Sun
Buggy ride - is is abusive?
What about when you attach a leash to a kid and you walk around with it?
How about Titanic thing at the MBL
I want to do what the girls do
Jump off bridges, ushering at Highfield Theater
Black Dog, Russian Teapot thing, churches and temples
Florida
California
Muscle Beach
Water Country
Six Flags
Plastic Funtime

June 12, 2021

The years pass by on golden wings
With crowns and wands hanging off them
And somewhere in the world there is a lot of bugs
Like ladybugs, butterflies, lightning bugs
With little fairies attached to them
And the light is streaming through the window
As we sit around dreaming
Of riding around on little ponies and unicorns
The fairies and the bugs are all having parties and picnics
And flying around in the gardens
To them our gardens look like big jungles
Filled with lots of lights and little bugs and big puddles
Jewelry is on the floor of the garden like mood rings and stuff.
I guess they are in boxes or sort of on the floor, on the ground
Everybody's busy making their little house out of boxes,
Little beds out of leaves for them to sleep on.
They have little houses made out of leaves and stones and rocks
And in the day they sip water off the trees

Until the human beings came in and changed the world.
They came in and they had to watch
And make sure they didn’t step on little creatures.
They were using jelly beans as little rocks to climb on and play with
And wrap themselves in leaves
And they all play around all day
And when it starts getting dark in winter
They go to bed.

They all hang out at a big swimming pool
That is made of tea the humans left behind.
And when they climb the rocks they have to make sure the frogs don't eat them
And they don't fall off.

They climbed on sugar rock candy
And they had sticks and stones to play ball games

Their place is so lovely but a little on the hilly side -
Hills, mountains, and trees, sort of like upstate
And they fly around in little bubbles
And hope the bubbles don't pop
Because they don't want tqo fall on the ground.

They do little magic tricks
Like make little brooms that clean up their house.
In the winter they fly around on little sticks