Our 2021 Awards Ceremony was a Zoom Awards! (no photo)

April 2019 (Poetry Month) Display at McKinney’s Hall Library. Thanks to Ann Marie Newman for the use of her imaginative Owls!

 

2018 Awards Ceremony for Winners of the Collin County Poetry Contest – April 29, 2018 at the Collin College Central Park Campus in McKinney

Ready to work! Mockingbird Members: (L-R) Susan Mardele, Alice Parker, Jiaan Powers

A Collin College welcome from Toni McMillen and Dr. Melinda McBee

2018 Winners of the Collin County Poetry Contest

2018 Winners in the Mockingbird Member Category: (R-L) Edmund Burke (1st place), Susan Mardele (HM), Leslie Cappiello (3rd), and Sylvia Medel (2nd)

Poets with their families, friends, and teachers who support them

 (L-R) Willie Sims, Ann Marie Newman, and David Knape

 After the Awards Ceremony – Mockingbird Members (L-R) Irene Robertson, Alice Parker, Beth Ayers, Ann Marie Newman, Edmund Burke, Willie Sims, Tom Martin, Sylvia Medel

Our 2018 Poetry Month Display (featuring raindrops and spring) in the McKinney Public Library

Anthology of winning poems available for purchase while supplies last

 

Collin County Annual Poetry Contest April 2017

Collin County Annual Poetry Contest April 17, 2016

   Jeanette Jordan Hibbs
            (1925- 2015)

  Collin County Annual Poetry Contest May 3, 2015-

        

      

      

     

    

Barnes & Noble Book fair  April 18, 2015 –

In celebration of Poetry Month, the Mockingbirds hosted an Open Mic event in conjunction with a Barnes & Noble Book fair.  Eighteen local poets shared their poems with a warm and responsive audience. Proceeds from the Book fair will help sponsor the annual Collin County Poetry Contest.  Also, this was the perfect time and place to debut our new anthology: Songs of the Mockingbirds (Contact us to purchase a copy.)

       

       

   

     

 In celebration of Poetry Month – 2015, the Mockingbirds sponsored a display in the McKinney Public Library

Mockingbirds share poetry at Pioneer Ridge in McKinney -March 21, 2015 

  

Poetry Society of Texas Summer Conference – July 2014 

Beth Ayers, Alice Parker, Irene Robertson, Jimmye Inez Sessions, Inez Grimes

The Poetry Society of Texas Annual Awards Banquet- November 8, 2014

           

Sylvia Medel, Jimmye Inez Sessions, Irene Robertson, Edmund Burke, Beth Ayers    

           

Sylvia Medel, Beth Ayers, Alice Parker, Irene Robertson, Edmund Burke, Aman Khan

The Mockingbird Poetry Society was well represented at this year’s PST Award’s Banquet.  PST President Jimmye Inez Sessions presided as winners were announced for 100 different contests. Mockingbird President Irene Robertson was present to support the Mockingbird winners. Aman Khan sponsored one of the highest awards.  Alice Parker and Edmund Burke both won a First Place cash award and publication in the Book of The Year.  Second place Mockingbird winners were: Sylvia Medel (2), Edmund Burke, Beth Ayers, and Alice Parker.  Third Place winners were: Edmund Burke (2), and Sylvia Medel.  Each of these poets, along with Jessica Gonsoulin (not pictured), had poems that placed in the top ten of a contest.  In addition, Sylvia Medel placed second and Beth Ayers placed third in the Edwin M. Eakin Memorial Book Publication Award.

The Mockingbird Garage Sale- June 2014

           

McKinney Public Library Poetry Contest Awards-  April 30, 2014

Smriti Natarajan (contest winner) with Scott Yarbrough
(contest judges)   and Lisa Kirby (contest judges),
Debbie Bennett (teacher), and Beth Ayers (speaker)

Jessica Vigil (contest winner) with family and Beth Ayers (speaker),
Scott Yarbrough and Lisa Kirby (contest judges)

Mockingbird Barnes & Noble Bookfair and Open Mic-  April 27, 2014
         

         

      

   

      

   

2014 Forces Release and Reading-  March 19, 2014

Mockingbird Members Beth Ayers, David Knape, Sylvia Medel, and Jessica Gonsoulin (not pictured) attending the  Forces Literary Journal release and reading

      

   

Collin County Annual Poetry Contest 2014

           

To Read, To Write

How blessed we are
to be able to read
to write

think
what would life be
without these special gifts

reading expands our minds
and plants new ideas in
fields of thought
one of man’s most precious gifts
is the reading of a book

to write is to explore
to find oneself on the written page
to see the beauty of a thought
expressed for others to absorb

what would we be
without the gifts of
reading and writing

lost souls among the lower creatures
who have not these gifts
can only growl or bark

so I would ask you
to keep stoking the fire
keep reading
keep writing

use your special gift
so that the flame does not go out

for the spark that starts
a learning fire
can warm your world
forever.

~d.knape

Collin County Annual Poetry Contest 2013