Percy Bysshe Shelley once wrote that "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world." Well, I think its time we acknowledged a few. Several of Indian River Charter High School's burgeoning poets took part in this year's IRCC Creative Writing Contest and many of them went home with accolades befitting their stellar use of our native tongue - if I may be so William Buckley about it.

Anyhoo - We would like to congratulate all our winners in the poetry category including 9th grade students Rachel Young (3rd place) Matthew Gold (2nd place), Kristen Kaiser (1st place) and 10 grader Mark Jones (3rd place), all students of Mr. Vince Power's English classes. A beaming Mr. Power remarked that the students "really made me proud" and he looked forward to creating more poetry in his classes. But the big winner in the poetry category was 12 th grade student Chantal Lamberth who not only took third place for her grade level but was also awarded a full scholarship to Indian River Community College where she plans to attend school in the fall of '08. Miss Lamberth (who goes by the moniker C.J.) was thrilled with the recognition of her work and remarked that she and her family have been concerned about the rising costs of a college education and that the IRCC scholarship couldn't have come at a better time. We re-print one of her winning poems here:

Parents -

By C.J. Lamberth

Parents

They'll tuck you into bed

And put a Band-aid on your knee.

Then turn around and lock you in your room,

Or ground you from your friends.

They'll tell you to change your clothes,

Cover yourself up,

Wear less makeup,

Lose ten more pounds.

They'll tell you to be single,

Don't' worry about love,

You're too young for that

Friends and family are all you need.

They'll push you to go to college,

Get a degree, have a good career,

Make something of your life.

Have straight As,

Only happy days,

Bed always made

You must always behave.

And when you begin to grow up

And let them go,

You move up and out,

And follow your soul.

You do what you want,

With nothing to lose

That's when you realize

You really do miss the

Constant,

Nagging,

Unconditional love.