Winning poems

Here are the winning poems from our inaugural poetry competition. The first prize winner used all the words supplied by the audience at our launch.


Think, Swallow, Catapult – Diving into the imperial Castlemaine Word Mine


Arriving late for the event, frittering,
yet balanced on the periphery
of the ovate crepuscular rays
shimmering effervescent and erotic
beyond the church steeple,
the pernickety, curmudgeon of a traveler,
feeling as old as a digger, a grandfather
- frenetic, savage, merging with a clatter
and little grace with the crowd - expected what?
Conspiricism, procrastination,
poppycock, generosity?
A sottisier, madrigal or melisma?
To scrabble, scamper and delve
into the greatness of the goulash
garden of obscenity?
Or memorise the multiplicity
of an omphalopsychotic caricature,
the prestidigitation
of original word mining?
Watching, astounded,
at the evocation, a veritable samsara,
of sesquipedalian virtuosity,
our traveler was fired up
to quench her thirst
for the fun, mystery and honesty
of the palimpsest
at the launch of our very own Word Mine.


Evelyn Jackson




AFTER THE EVENT


Before,
It was as though everything
On the periphery
Of what I call my life
Seemed nothing more than frittering
Nothing more than filling in time.
Sitting,
Watching,
Waiting.

Nothing more than procrastination.

Then I saw a point,
Finally
Beyond the everyday
And, astounded
I dared to believe
That what was in front of me
Was real,
Is real.

It is not greatness I seek,
Merely a garden
Where love, grace and generosity
Merge with each other
Changing the world around us
Giving us cause
To understand each other
Trust one another,
And cease to be the traveller
Searching for something
That was there all the time.


Christine King