Great Plains Review 2022

2022 Awards

Best Photo: “A Study of Senses” by Valerie Weis

“A Study of Senses,” said one of our Art professors, “has successfully visualized…what is not seen in our eyes. Val used dynamic visual elements in each of the three images while creating a cohesive style that correlates with the…

Carpe Diem

By Tiffany Ellen Adams

In this image, the end of the stream cannot be seen; that is how

life is — and that is why you have to embrace the now, and your

place in life’s journey.

The Beauty Behind the Window

By Cheyan Britain (best thematic piece)

Every day I sit here looking out the window and thinking about the beauty of this world. How beautiful it is that war has again broken out in a foreign country. How beautiful it is that…

It Is Easy To Find Broken Things In Life

By Christian Monge

Seize the Single Life

By Paige Sherraden

You have heard it said, “Seize the day!” But I say to you, “Seize the single life!” While Jesus may not have said these words, it certainly does catch our ear in the same way it would the crowd he was originally speaking to. This is…

A Little Piece of Glory

By Mika Stone

“The announcers were saying she is the greatest skater ever.” That was the text from my dad the morning after Kamila Valieva skated a historic short program at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Days later, this achievement was marred with…

Burn

By Johanna Beck

To live in-between the sun and the stars
should be a wondrous thing.
But their brilliance is a jealous light.

But as the moon steals from the sun,
we must take their light;
let it burn…

Vagary

By Johanna Beck

She spins in the dark-
beauty made of starlight
and ash.

I Believe in the Drumroll of Bird Wings

By Johanna Beck

I believe in starlings flying through wheat fields, static electricity,
carved wooden foxes, children splashing in a pool,
baby goats tumbling around, rose-scented candles,
sleek gray horses wild with the joy…

The Field

By Bryson Brownlee

Morning breaks
on a rippling sea of tall green grass.
Birds sing high in the trees

and the wind rustles,
jostles the rainy scent
of morning dew from its perch.

Praise to the Senses

By Molly Ellis

Praise to the senses
that ground me still.

Praise my sight that saw the sun
cause your eyes to glow.
And the way they look at me.

Scars

By Molly Ellis

My skin holds
so many scars
from a childhood
spent running outside
and the harshness
of my life…

Grief

By Sharon Griffith (Radenberg) ‘14

Autumn’s Peak

By Sophia Pearl Godfrey

Ode to Bathsheba

By Sophia Pearl Godfrey

On your rooftop blithely bathing
The heated water and sunlight scathing
Your glistening shoulders catch the eye
Of a royal standing high

Hiraeth

By Sophia Pearl Godfrey

I’m on edge
Walking out of step
With everyone around me
Like a jigsaw missing a…

Bathroom Break

By Britnie Jenkins

I thought about you today,
While taking an introvert moment
In a bathroom secluded from
The crowded event room,
The mingling celebrators,
The heaps of snacks.

Home for the Holidays

By Britnie Jenkins

Now a guest in the place most familiar to me,
It seems that despite my age
Until my life shifts, I reside between two planes of existence.

The Door that Leads to You

By Britnie Jenkins

I stared at the door I slammed shut all those years ago,
Noticed a crack of light peeking through where it met the wall.
Did that mean the room on the other side wasn’t dark?
Could it be possible that you’d still be standing…

The Night Sky

By Britnie Jenkins

Pictograph on a Chinese Sarcophagus

By Joshua Matthews

Weary and worn trudged the father
and son up the mountainside,
pulling behind them the sledge
that held grandfather.

I Don’t Even Know Your Name

By Joshua Matthews

Star Crossed

By Joshua Matthews

You and I are not from this world
we are from another
Yet part of each other.

It is a remembering
of a memory
that never happened on Earth

Wednesday Night Poem

By Joshua Matthews

Take me back to that Mexican church without walls
where I knelt on my knees in the dirt
Bring me back to that room where I knelt
where cries were loud
and hearts quenched their thirst on dirt-laid floors
Take me into your Presence…