Retired West Bountiful teacher wins poetry award

The Salt Lake Tribune

First Published Dec 09 2012 11:03 am • Last Updated Dec 10 2012 12:10 am

A retired elementary school teacher from West Bountiful won the 2012 Utah Senior Poet Laureate Award for her poem "Voices of the Night."

Vera Ogden Bakker, 79, received the honor in the 20th annual Senior Poets Laureate Poetry Competition sponsored by Amy Kitchener’s Angels Without Wings Foundation based in Monterey, Calif.

The competition recognizes poets age 50 and older, according to a news release.

Also recognized in the competition were Utah Honor Scroll Award winners Cindy Bechtold, of Lehi, for "Pushing the Edge," and Vickie S. Ericksen, of Lehi, for "Only Sissies Believe in God."

John W. Crawford, 76, a retired literature professor from Henderson State University of Arkadelphia, Ark., won the 2012 National Senior Poet Laureate Award, and William Childress, 79, a former National Geographic editor and columnist, won the National Honor Scroll Award.

State laureate and honor scroll winners selected the competition’s national winners.

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