Fresno County Public Library Poetry Contest: I Want to Know You

I want to know you
Not just by a distorted body
Due to the ravages of disease and treatments
Or by a mind that no longer functions.

I want to know your birthplace,
Your history, your travel experience,
And your journey through life.

I want to know your ambitions,
Your hopes and desires, your unfulfilled dreams,
Your marathons of life.

But you are too sick to tell
With end stage diagnoses
Cascading so quickly.

I still want to know you.
Why?
Because I only see a fragment
Of what you were.

I wish I had known you!

--Joan A., Adult

Children's Judge: James Tyner

James Tyner is a poet and librarian. His poetry has appeared in multiple journals including Avatar Review, Coal Hill Review, Transcendence, and more. He’s appeared in several anthologies of poetry and has a Chapbook titled “The Ghetto Exorcist”. Tyner is also a librarian and has spoken about his library programs around the nation. For his librarianship he won a PLSEP grant, an Excellence in Building Community award, was selected for the CLA Leadership Challenge, and has presented panels at ALA, CLA, and PLA. Tyner also served as the first poet laureate of Fresno.

Middle School Judge: Catherine Abbey Hodges

Catherine Abbey Hodges is the author of the poetry collections In a Rind of Light, forthcoming from Stephen F. Austin State University Press in early 2020; Instead of Sadness, selected by Dan Gerber for the 2015 Barry Spacks Poetry Prize from Gunpowder Press; and Raft of Days (Gunpowder Press, 2017). Her poems appear widely in venues including The Southern Review, Narrative, Atticus Review, The American Journal of Poetry, Nimrod, Chicago Quarterly Review, and SWWIM. Catherine teaches English at Porterville College, where her students keep her awake and inspired. Learn more at www.catherineabbeyhodges.com.

High School Judge: Lou Standiler

Lou Standiler is an English Teacher and writer. I found poetry as an outlet in seventh grade and never stopped. Started writing Slam pieces in 2007 and eventually performed (and was lucky enough to win a few times) at the Inner Ear Beat Down Slam in Fresno. I also performed and featured at other events around the valley. I published a chap book with my colleague, fellow poet, and close friend, Drew Blanchard titled “You Mean You Don’t Live Here?” in 2012. I’m in my 12th year of teaching English. I spent a decade at Clovis High School and am now a very proud Central Grizzly! I continue to read and write poetry whenever possible. Poetry, language, and communication are the keys to everything great in this world.

Adult Judge: David Campos

David Campos is the son of Mexican immigrants, a CantoMundo Fellow, the author of Furious Dusk (University of Notre Dame Press, 2015), and the forthcoming American Quasar (Red Hen, 2021). His work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, and The Normal School. He's the winner of the 2014 Andres Montoya Poetry Prize, and the Annual Prairie Schooner Strousse Award for the best group of poems in Prairie Schooner. He teaches English at Fresno City College. He lives in Clovis, California.

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I Want to Know You