Robert Frost Youth Poets Named

UNH Co-Sponsors Annual Contest

DURHAM, N.H. -- Samantha Hantman, a Hampstead Academy fourth grader, has been named the year 2000 Robert Frost Youth Poet for the state of New Hampshire.

Hantman's poem titled "Just Like Me" was her interpretation of this year's theme "New Hampshire Landscapes":

A field covered in white snow.
Full winter moon shining.
Snow glistening like a sunset.

Surrounded by birch trees,
Bare in the cold winter climate.
Casting a ghostly shadow,
on the newly fallen snow.

Hear the rushing rivers,
Surrounded by giant evergreens,
Whistling as they sway in the wind.

Each bush, leaf, and tree,
A different personality.
Some tough and strong-rooted.
Others durable, swaying in the slightest breeze.

Some like comedians laughing at the moon.
Others solemnly refuse,
to bend and have fun.

Inside I thought about what I had just seen,

When I next saw a tree,
blowing in the wind,
I saw a person, just like me.

Hantman was selected among approximately 1,000 entrants in the annual contest sponsored by the University of New Hampshire Dimond Library, Trustees of the Robert Frost Homestead, and the State Department of Parks and Recreation, with support from the Finisterre Fund. Youth poets in each county and runners-up have also been selected. All winners will be honored Saturday, June 24, during a noon ceremony at Robert Frost Farm in Derry.

Members of the Poetry Society of New Hampshire judge the entries, which are then preserved each year in a permanent archive in the UNH Dimond Library. Following is a list of winners from each county:

Belknap County: Abbie Morin, Laconia
Honorable Mention (HM): Danielle O'Malley, New Hampton

Carroll County: Lindsay Donovan, Center Tuftonboro
HM: Kayla Crowley, Center Ossipee

Cheshire County: Delaney Uja, Keene
HM: Sara Drew, Jaffrey

Coos County: Ryan Strauch, Lancaster
HM: Joshua Boivin, Stark

Grafton County: John Strasser, Franconia

Hillsborough County: Kaitlin Carlson, Litchfield
HM: Anastasia French, Francestown

Merrimack County: Elizabeth Cassidy, Concord
HM: Meagan Burd, Concord

Rockingham County: John Pennisi, Windham
HM: Katie Archambault, Newmarket

Strafford County: John Crocker, Dover
HM: Sean Clancy, Dover

Sullivan County: Rachel Torrey, Meriden
HM: Jonathan Snow, Newport

June 19, 2000

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