This poem won the First Place Grand Champion in the 3-4 category of the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association student poetry contest.  Michael Mathew, an 8 year old third grader at Hillside Grade School in New Hyde Park.  The award ceremony is featured on May 31, 2026

A noiseless, patient spider sits
Upon a ledge where the shadow fits
He weaves a silver, silky thread
Above the garden flower bed.
He doesn’t make a single sound
While spinning-in circles round and round.
He waits for a fly to come his way,
To stop and visit for the day.
With eight tiny legs and a steady heart,
He builds his sticky work of art