Congratulations to Ignite creative writing student Chance Lang, who won a third place award in the 2010 Torrance Legacy Creative Writing Awards for his poem "Space"! Chance was awarded third place for poetry in grades 6 through 8, selected from more than 350 submissions by students worldwide.

The Torrance Legacy Creative Writing Awards is an international creative writing competition, started in 2009 to honor Dr. E. Paul Torrance. Dr. Torrance is known throughout the world as the “father of creativity” and he dedicated his life’s energies toward developing ways to assess creativity in children and adults. His nearly 60 years of research has become the platform from which much of the research in the field of gifted education is based. Ignite will announce the topics and information for the 2011 contest as soon as it comes out.

Space by Chance Lang

a huge ball of mass
a huge ball of black
with a circumference to high for man kind
capable to unleash unlimited colors
mixed together to make unimaginable shapes and size
able to make something seen from one million miles away
a talent with no limits
and a power that is not controlled
the creator of beauty and shape
creator of all elements
inventor of planets that give us life
and some our painful doom
able to make explosions out of nothing
and light with a temperature unimaginable
something that can create a color that can kill you
can create and destroy chaos
and make it beautiful
can create a shape that can transport anyone anywhere

transport through invisible portals
all in the blink of an eye
the mass that made all
the food we eat
the people we turned out to be
and more we don’t know of
also like a giant mystery
a mystery book that never ends
this device and the thing that has all knowledge is called space
space is everything we know
and what we don’t know yet
space was the beginning of all life
we need to keep what space started
keep earth strong and healthy
this is what will give us life
or take us to the end
this is space

as we don’t know it and
as we do

More Free Verse Poetry

The Birds on A Cold Night

Cold night
The little birds huddle up close.
The birds, fluffy as a kitten.
Trying to keep warm,
the birds snuggle up on a branch.
The branch is small but no bird will fall,
Still trying to keep warm.

By Leila, Grade 3

The Star Tree

A cold night
Tons of stars
Crisp, white snow
The tree is very cold
like an iceberg
The tree is wishing
for warmth in summer.


The tree is warm.
It has a golden shell
It glimmers like the sun
It has green leaves, perfect and crisp.
Birds flutter by as a snapping turtle
crawls out of its hole to lay its eggs.

By Leila, Grade 3

Response to "The Bird Tree" by Thomas Locker

Black.
The tree has the mist.
Mysterious.
A scarecrow tree.
There is a pile of leaves under the tree.
It is autumn because birds are flying on and off the tree.
Hunter's paradise.

By Hayden, Sean, Jesse, and Marcus, Grades 3-5

Response to "The Bird Tree" by Thomas Locker

It's misty.
Cloudy in the sky
A lot of birds on the branches
It has grass patches.
The tree is on a hill.
It has no leaves.
The bushes have no leaves.
There are leaves on the hill.
It's tall and beautiful.
It's the end of fall
and getting closer to winter.

By 2nd and 3rd graders - Oliver, William, Isabella, Alice, and Graciela

Response to "The Bird Tree" by Thomas Locker

Hundreds of birds everywhere
Dissolving into the tree
Covering the bareness of the branches
A tree with no leaves that's growing new ones
Getting bigger and barren and more open
Reeds and birds sing together in chorus
The fog begins to stir
Winter comes and goes but
the birds stay on keeping the tree company,
like a blanket keeps you warm.


By Andrew, Chance, Christopher, Mitch, Sean, Spencer - Grades 6 & 7

Free Verse Poetry

The Tree of Summer

There is a tree,
with a blue sky
and puffy clouds behind it
on a hill
In the deep blue river
fishes lurk
waiting endlessly.
There is a tree
in the summer
on a hill.

By Nolan, Grade 5

The Autumn Tree's Thoughts

I see fellow trees behind me.
All of our leaves are oranger than pumpkins.
Squirrels are bustling under me.
I see a river
that's clearer than crystal.
I think a storm is coming.

By Isaac, Grade 4

Response to "The Violet Tree"

Looks like its leaves are darkness
An opening in the clouds
The tree has dark coloring.
The river is flowing.
There are lots of tules by the river.
Ice on the edge of the river
There are black as night mountains in the background.

By Nolan and Isaac, Grades 5 and 4