Raffaele wins state poetry award

LINCOLN - Doris Deleuze Raffaele, 85, of Lincoln, has won a 2009 Rhode Island Senior Poet Laureate Award with her free verse "The Sea" in the 17th annual National Senior Poets Laureate Poetry Competition for American poets age 50 and older.

The literary event, open to all American poets born before 1960, is sponsored by Amy Kitchener's Angels Without Wings Foundation of Monterey, Calif.

Raffaele is a retired feature writer for the New Bedford Times. Her winning poem joined other state laureate winners in the final rounds from which one national winner was selected. The national winner came from Wyoming.

Details about the contest and all winners' poems appear in the online anthology "Golden Words" currently on the sponsor's Web site amykitchenerfdn.org .