Chelsea Redmon, Grade 8
Stacey Middle School, Westminster
Second Place, Middle School Poetry

The Garden of Hope

The ‘Holocaust of Horror’ held no one safe from its bearer
Even the innocent children suffered needlessly in terror.
Many ran to escape, while others stayed to fight the cause.
For heroes’ hearts nurtured from love will ask for no applause.

Buried in a secret garden deep inside a glass jar,
The concealed names of precious souls once branded by a star.
Identities were coded so as not to discriminate.
Twenty-five hundred names were placed in an elusive state.

A doctor’s daughter who was not Jewish by her own creed,
Never judged a person’s worth in life, as if they were a breed.
She kept her secret garden from all who ventured near,
To journal the families of children who had escaped the fear.

To voice promised secrets that never were to be spoken.
She endured being tortured—her legs and feet both broken.
She would have discarded her life freely rather than speak any name,
Of those she helped to freedom or where to place the blame.

Her garden of hope grew from the love she held inside,
In knowing life will have answers if faith is applied.
Irena Sendlerowa’s garden had nourished the rebirth
In the lives of so many, she brought back their self worth.