UVM/GIV Engineering Summer Institute June 28 - July 5, 2008
Suburban Sprawl
By Ben Ewing
(1st Place)
Replacing the forests, the rivers, the streams
With a concrete landscape and steel beams
Once a harmonious, lush place
Now a lifeless square, a parking space
A building looks on with a glint in its eye
As the sun cringes at the sight, in the afternoon sky.
The stream now hiding under a pipe
Once clear and pristine,
But now muddy in strife
And so instead of a forest, a vivacious place
There are only the markings of the human race.
Poem by Calvin Kennedy-Dietrich
(2nd Place)
As the wolfhound bucks and bays,
I have watched my world decay.
The people, just like ants below
Simply hustle and bustle to and fro.
As they build their temples and beg me to stay,
But I just watch my world decay.
I gave it to them at the start of time
What then was meant to be mine?
And I took down as they whip and slay
MY world that just now decays.
The forces of nature they managed to sway,
But as they made the world their way,
They now bow and bend and weep and pray,
And I am watching my world decay.
As man of one flesh, they stand together
As a man of one mind he kills the other
As men of the heart they will realize one day
That they are causing their world’s decay.
I see all this as I look down from my bed,
As pollution and corruption envelopes my heart,
And I shake it off as I raise my hand
For this mirage of me, I just cannot stand.
I will wipe it out and start again,
Only this time with no brain
For with this weapon now forbade,
Now my world shall not decay.
Poem by Nicolas Steketee
(3rd Place)
How long do we still have to live?
How much can the earth really give?
We use, we burn, we destroy, yet still yearn
Shouting more, more, more, more, more.
How many more things can we do wrong?
Can these troubles really last so long?
Through waste and neglect,
Our words show no respect,
More, more, more, more, more!
From far and near, some people do say
With optimism that technology's the way
Even with our future so bleak, all we still can do is speak,
More, more, more, more, more?
Some of us still trudge through the gloom,
Facing what we see as a certain doom
But as they clamber for support,
The foolish masses do snort
More, more, more, more, more!
Honorable Mention Poem by Ben Jacobs
Recycling Through the Eyes of a Squirrel
What a pretty nut that sits in from of me,
How could this possibly be?
The nut is crunchy, but tastes so fake,
Is this plastic for goodness sake?
Have I been tricked by the human race again,
Tricked, they are a fellow friend.
Destroying my home mother earth,
For which has given their lives birth.
As I spit this plastic up,
Only to look to my left to see an old cup,
It strikes me one more time,
That what the humans are doing is a crime.
Honorable Mention Poem by Nick Corso
Dreams, it seems, are fickle things,
Held together by love and strings.
The fledglings flap and yearn to fly,
Though only in the dust to die.
Dreams it seams are robust things
Born with passion, strength, and wings
From the fowl and charred remains
Yon bird may crawl and fly again.