Winning 2009 Poems

(click poem title to see poem)

Celia Piehl was a poet and a well-loved member of the town of Bandon. Many of the poems she wrote were about the people she knew and loved, and about the land itself, which she appreciated in all its wildness and splendour. When she died in 1997, her husband, William Piehl, compiled a book of her poems, "Life Times II - Poems and Thoughts of Celia Piehl," which is available through the Bandon Public Library. He has selected these works as ones which might speak, most particularly, to "A Season for Non-Violence."

Celia Piehl, a lifelong supporter of civil and personal rights, a social worker-counselor and poet, died in 1997. She was a direct descendant of the first governor of Vermont who fought in the American Revolution. She lived and worked in Coos County Oregon for 23 years. She devoted her life to change that would lead to understanding, peace and unity among people, regardless of their various backgrounds and differences.

Enjoy four of her poems reproduced here:

As One Woman of Thousands at Douglas, Santa Monica, During WWII

For Myrlie Evers Williams

Like Lovers in a Painting

Your Faces

Past Young Poets Awards