Celebrating the Winners of the 2024 Bay County Poetry Contest

We’re thrilled to announce the winners of the 2024 Bay County Poetry Contest, a collaboration between the Bay County Library System and the English Department at Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU)!

This annual contest celebrates the creative voices of our community, inviting poets to reflect on Bay County and the places we call home. We received an impressive array of entries this year, and each one was carefully reviewed by SVSU English students. Thanks to the generous support of the Friends of the Bay County Library System, cash prizes were awarded to three outstanding poets whose work captured the heart and spirit of our region.

We are proud to present the three winning poems below.

1st Place: “tobico fall(s)” by Bob Younce

Bob Younce’s first-place poem is a meditative reflection on nature, memory, and surrender, drawing its imagery from the natural rhythms of Tobico Marsh.

tobico fall(s)

Bob Younce
1st Prize Winner of the 2024 Bay County Poetry Contest

here’s where I lay down
like a leaf
that’s too tired to fall any other way—
so I let gravity talk me down,
no struggle, just the slow drift
through air gone gold with afternoon

it’s a long way from the branches
from the wild pull of sky,
I used to reach up,
stretched toward light
but now it’s the quiet that pulls,
that soft ache of ground below,

where roots remember,
keep secrets,
turn to dust every name whispered

I sink through layers,
feel the moss & cold mulch cover me up,
as if I’ve always been part of this place,
always belonged to the dark spaces in between

& I close my eyes to the shadows growing in,
each breath gets heavy with earth and slow rot,
the damp of old promises—

I can hear the hum of roots now, the old low murmur,
steady as rain, soft as time,
and I wonder if this is how a leaf feels,
letting go of green, giving itself
to the soil’s deep hunger

knowing it’s (I’m) bound to become
just one more layer

2nd Place: “The Tridge and The Trail” by Nathan Bonus

Nathan Bonus, a creative writing student at SVSU, offers a powerful narrative poem set along familiar Bay County landscapes. His imagery blends modern disconnection with ancient natural wisdom.

The Tridge and The Trail

Nathan Bonus
2nd Prize Winner of the 2024 Bay County Poetry Contest

She sits atop that nexus of wood and water,
chained by charger
to the convenient outlet.
The creaking winter bench offers
warm embrace. Her lungs fill with fog.

In her hand, on her slender box of flags,
signaling her sorrow across watery expanse,
as she and the rest stoop
to be sloops on a foggy sea,
her thumb works its mundane magic.

Despite the layered linkings arrayed, she lacks
the one she seeks. Only swiping flags and people
imprisoned by their boxes. Her legs lead her south—
CAUTION Trail Unmaintained
She is hesitation, but You are not
alone, says the drawings of those who dared

And so she follows fragile hope into the forest.

Brittle branchlets pick at her hair and poke at her brain,
pushing her back, but at her advance, the resulting snaps

wreak of welcome. She clambers over rocks,
repulsed by the wood’s pulling. The
river, flowing at starboard, slowly consumes
the path, chipping it away with its gaping maw.
One misplaced step could send her slipping

into water and snow. Fear tries to turn her back—
an ancient etching in a tree, letters,
Y and M, bound by a plus sign, encircled by a heart.
So on.

Hungry water sloshes, feasting on the forest,
narrowing land to a mirror’s edge. Water.
Trail. Water. No end in sight. The barest hope of staying dry.

3rd Place: “Song of the Lakes” by Mya Copenhafer

Mya Copenhafer, an occupational therapy student and marketing director of the Art RSO at SVSU, shares a sweeping tribute to the Great Lakes, weaving together natural beauty and Michigan identity.

Song of the Lakes

Mya Copenhafer
3rd Prize Winner of the 2024 Bay County Poetry Contest

The air in Michigan sings with the water's story,
a tale older than the sand beneath our feet.
Superior looms like a guardian,
its waves a subtle whisper,
of stories older than words.
Huron holds a labyrinth of islands,
each shore cradles the wind,
a voice that carries pine and cedar.
Erie spreads wide and restless,
its waters hoist murmurs
of factories and ferries, cities and change.
Ontario bustles with cities along the shore,
their hums absorbed by the waves,
the water listening without reply.
Michigan curves to meet the sky,
every wave delivers a pulse,
a heartbeat for those who call it home.

These three poems will be on display at all Bay County Library System branches beginning in National Poetry Month this April. You’ll also find them featured in various buildings at Saginaw Valley State University and in an upcoming edition of Writing@SVSU.

To all who submitted—thank you for sharing your words and your voice with us. We look forward to celebrating even more local talent in the years to come!