Winners of the 2015 Poetica Christi Press Poetry Competition – Imagine

First Prize

Avril Bradley
The view from a balcony in Noosa

Second Prize

Cameron Semmens
Upon holding a brand new person (womb-fresh and yawning)

Other poems selected by the judge to appear in the anthology – poets listed alphabetically:

Mazzy Adams
Coalesced

Avril Bradley
Things to do in the belly of a whale

Victoria Carnell
Ride with Chesterton

Joy Chellew
Imagine

Jennifer Chrystie
If Dogs Were Horses

Tru S Dowling
Orange Rope Walk

John Egan
Ghosts and Dreams

Jeff Guess
Jigsaw

Don Helmore
Behold

Gillian Hunt
Moon orchids

Gillian Hunt
Palestine Dreaming

Janine Johnston
Kintsugi

Fiona McIlroy
Quicksilver

Jane McMillan
REM

Jan Price
Close Your Eyes

Paul Scully
Waltzing Croydon

Christina Spry
Champagne Cocktail

Peter Stiles
The Crabapple Tree

Ron Thomas
Bas-relief

Ron Thomas
Warrandyte Thoughts

Rachel Timmins
Sun Dried Tomato

Valerie Volk
In dreams

Bron Williams
Shadows

 

Poem of the Month – August

1952 : Survivors

War had been hard, though six years down the line
in Adelaide, the pain was fading off.
But letters came from Europe; there, the crack
of pistols, rifles, bones and caved in skulls
still echoed at the borders, where the wire
and occupying flags staked out new worlds.
They echoed in the ears of children who
had seen and heard too many bitter things –
had dined on rats at tables in Berlin
while mother pulled her skirts back down
and turned her head to watch the Russians leave.
Their homes knelt down in piles of ruined bricks.
Sometimes a lonely slab still stood; revealed
a splash of flowers on a bedroom wall
bombed-out and on display, for all to see.
Their fathers never made it back to towns
where patriotic flags once fluttered stiff
in summer breeze above the proud town hall.
The telegrams had ticked them off the list.
A million childhoods throttled by a war
that wrapped its dirty fingers round their throats,
before it left to seek new nurseries
in Kabul, Mogadishu or Phnom Penh.
In after years, imaginations plucked
some keepsakes from the fractured growing-up.
Our cousins’ memories would sift the wreck
like treasure-hunters passing magic wands
across the post-war silence and decay,
until a moment gleamed from early days.
Snapdragons on a wall. The scent of starch
in mother’s pinafore upon their face;
an uncle’s figure pointing to the sky
where aircraft droned and slid into the clouds –
in days before the sirens howled and sobbed.
A stamp collection like a tiny world
inside an album, where the nations lay
in neat serrated ranks, before their fall,
and, on the farms, the clicks of breakfast plates
downstairs, as they lay warm in bed – those days
when hearts could lift, as cocks called up the dawn.

©2015  C Ringrose


Winner of the 2015 Poetica Christi competition and used by permission from the recent anthology Inner Child.

Joy Chellew’s new book – “In Search of Peace – A journey from dismay to discovery”

Joy Chellew’s love of the Scriptures colours both her life and her poetry. In Search of Peace is testament to this love and her search for the perfect peace that only God can give. Joy’s poems bask in God’s blessings; her words walk in His strength; her perceptive insights reveal the power of God’s promises, comfort and constancy. In Search of Peace is rich with intent – to give God the glory.

front cover

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click here to order

Poem of the month (June/July)

What’s the Use 

Like every other day
he sits
people come and go
he sits
staring into space
no face, no action
prompts the least response
he’s heard nor said a word
in all of two long years

Boz walks into the room
he smiles and comments
Dog”

©2015 Joan Ray

This poem will be found in Joan Ray’s upcoming book to be launched shortly, proceeds of which will be passed on to Lort Smith and Guide Dogs Victoria in honour of their contribution to Pet Therapy

Joan's_Poem

 

Poetica Christi Press 2015 Annual Poetry Competition

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTUREScloses August 31st, 2015

1st PRIZE $300
2nd prize $100

25 poems will be selected to be included in an anthology to be published by PCP

The theme for this competition will be

IMAGINE
This topic lends itself to poems about imagination, fantasy, illusion, dreams, legend, the future, creativity, exuberance, whimsy, fancy, reverie, utopia, idealism, playfulness, hope, wonder, imagery, empathy and social justice.

For entry forms click here.