The Walla Walla University Department of English announced that Effie Johnson, a freshman at Orcas Christian School, has been awarded first place in the WWU 2009 Young Writer’s Contest with her original poem entitled “The Stones,” and second place in the same contest with her original poem entitled “The Beach Comber’s Curse.”

Johnson, 15, enjoys sketching, playing the piano and writing.

“She is a joy to have in class,” her High School English teacher Jonathan Fox said, “and I am proud of her accomplishments in my class and her achievements highlighted by this contest.” Orcas Christian School principal Tom Roosma adds, “I have always been impressed with Effie’s goal to become an author of children’s books. She has been talking about it since elementary school.”

The Stones

By Effie Johnson

Lilies rustle in the stillness

Of a churchyard lit by moonlight,

As willows weep and hand their branches

Over the deep and shadowy night

The stones lie silently in rows,

Ancient, worn and weather beaten,

With moss obscuring names of those

Who live in memories now weakened

The stones lie crooked on their graves,

Each lichen-covered, mossy face

Reminding us of those who are

No longer with us in this place

The stones lie silently this night,

Thinking back to other days

Before their faces were engraved

With names of those now passed away

These stones have sat one hundred years

Witnessing the many tears

Shed by the ones who mourned for those

Who are now lost to all the years.

The lilies stand among the stones

That lie together, row-by-row,

And carry still the names of those

Who were lost so long ago.