Feeling very honoured to have my poetry acknowledged and affirmed in the Poetic Christi Press Poetry Competition.
Unable to be at the Melbourne launch of the much anticipated Anthology
A New Day Dawns
but look forward to receiving my copy of the Anthology very soon.
Fifth symphony Highly commended
Colleen Keating
Vaughan Williams
composed his symphony
on fire-watch
barrages of bombs dropped
nightly enflamed his city
no air raid shelter
for him as he pocketed
his note pad and pen
fought in the crucible
of siren-moans
cries for help
and from the dark
composed music that plays
like a mountain brook
tumbling
in a moment
that brims
with a tomorrow
And to be included in a new Anthology called
A NEW DAY DAWNS
an anthology of poems
edited
by Janette Fernando
WINNERS OF THE 2024 COMPETITION –
A new day dawns
Poetica Christi Press poetry Competition 2024
Judge: Winner:
Tru Dowling
Wild With Scrub – Ellen Shelley
Runner-up:
Highly Commended: Fifth Symphony – Colleen Keating
Highly Commended:A Cool September Eve – Ellen Shelley
High Jinx – Laurie Keim
Commended
Mulch – Cathy Altmann
A Saint in Cobalt & Ochre – David Terelinck
Tacet – Bethany Evans
My Light Not Spent – Denise Parker
Sunset in Geraldton – Michael Genoni
Bleeding Hearts – Kate O’Neil
What the Water Gave Me – Jemma van Loenen
The Morning Star Guides Me On – Scott-Patrick Mitchell
Oriental Travel Trilogy – Stefan Dubczuk
Herm Island, Channel Islands, September 2023 –
Mary Jones Not About Dancing – Wendy Fleming
Sonnet – a Feather – Mocco Wollert
John – Claire Watson
Let’s Do It – Edith Speers
Janus-faced – Jason Beale
Polynesia, le ciel – Colleen Keating
Homecoming –Suzette Thompson
Blue-eyed Boy – Kay Cairns
On the Cusp of Morning – Claire Watson
Every Day I Wake – Janeen Samuel
Awakened – Wendy Fleming
My second poem Commended and to be published I will share her too
Polynesia, le ciel
Colleen Keating
It’s not ‘brothers, we must die,’ it is rather, ‘brothers, we must live’*
about light and colour he was never wrong
Henri Matisse knew from his youth
their startling wonder
how they exude a lighthouse authority
how they uplift human nature
when the world weighs low
and how when clouds of war
dim the sun
their illumination of hope can be forgotten
as in deepest night
it is easy to forget dawn returns
in Matisse’s Le Ciel
the lightness of joy fills the air
with a patchwork of his blues –
light and dark
alternating in and out
his cut-out sculptures of birds
float on the air
lift up dive whirl spin
ethereal in white
and dancing stars glint like enamel
or they could be flowers of joy
bordered by acanthus leaves
swaying hypnotically
reminding us to live
*H. Matisse (1946)