GREENFIELD — The Friends of the Greenfield Public Library crowned Christian Drake the adult winner of this year’s Poet’s Seat Poetry Contest.

Saul Hirshberg and Alex Li were named co-winners in the category for poets ages 12 to 14, and Henry Maxey and Luce Cordero were named co-winners among ages 15 to 18.

The awards ceremony at the Greenfield Public Library on Tuesday marked the 34th year of the contest’s history. Hosted by the Friends of the Greenfield Public Library, the night’s most sought-after prize was the “Poet’s Seat,” a chair and title that is granted to the adult winner for the following year. The contest is named after Poet’s Seat Tower in Greenfield.

Bob Barba, the adult winner in 2019 and a current judge, spoke to the significance of poetry in today’s tumultuous landscape.

“For me, the past few months have been especially difficult,” Barba said. “It has been great to have these poems as a companion for me.”

The contest is open to all Franklin County residents and students attending Franklin County schools. Each contestant was allowed to submit three poems no longer than three standard pages. For each of the youth categories, four finalists were selected. The adult category featured nine finalists. All of the finalists were invited to read their poems aloud at the event.

Drake is an interpretive ranger with the state Department of Conservation and Recreation as well as a paraprofessional at Franklin County Technical School. Two of Drake’s poems were selected as finalists in the competition, and he won for “Necropsy of a Spirit Deer.”

The poem tells the story of the necropsy of an albino deer that reveals bullets, diseases and other things capable of killing it — yet the deer died of old age. He said he was inspired to write this poem based on a story told to him by a colleague.

“There was a teacher at Franklin Tech who told me this story of an all-white albino deer in Colrain that was shot 20-odd years back,” he said. “And just how amazing it was that there were all these objects found in his body but it didn’t die of any of them.”

Drake, who moved to Leverett after living in Charlemont, said he was looking to meet more people and expand his social life, which led him to the Poet’s Seat Poetry Contest.

“I moved closer to the valley, where I’m from, and I was like, ‘Alright poetry, maybe you can help me out here,” he said. “It was nice that I was able to put something out into the community that I’m trying to reach and make friends in.”

Kevin Thomas, who wrote “Foal,” and Skyler Lambert, who wrote “A Place of the Heart,” took home the prizes for second and third place in the adult category, respectively. All winners were awarded a celebratory mug and a rose, and all finalists were given a certificate.

A recording of the awards ceremony can be viewed at youtube.com/watch?v=hXEfkdtavAI.