Daily Pilot announces poetry contest winner

Sometimes Janet Ramont needs a push.

She got it recently when Costa Mesa resident Angela Rezzano urged her to participate in the Daily Pilot’s poetry contest, which promised to publish the winning entry on the front page. Ramont, who lived in Orange County for years and now makes her home in Long Beach, complied. As promised, and with thanks to all the contributors, here is Ramont’s winning poem:

Remembering Boston

I take out that photograph again

stained and faded from the years,

left corner bent and torn...

We’re in front of the Boston State House,

smiling for the camera

as it captures the moment

for when our minds grow feeble

and we can’t remember being there.

Were we ever there?

I recall my impressions of Boston

the common green,

trees red leaved and sweating,

some already bare,

signs of an early winter.

As I stare at the Kodak image

of our day in Boston

your smile turns to a sneer,

scoffing at my sentamentalism

and my despair at realizing

I had seen that statue of Paul Revere on horseback

scurrying through the streets to warn us

but I chose to look the other way.