First Prize $300
The spring floods are finally over
at least for now, apparently,
and the birds have started up again,
and not just because it’s sunrise,
but we’re finally talking to each other,
now that the spring floods are finally over
past the uprooted trees and washed-up rocks
and all the strange new mudflats –
but the birds have started up again,
picking at whatever they can find,
like old memories of babbling winds,
now the spring floods are finally over
and the river-banks are all carved new now
clear and strange without any more questions:
the spring floods are finally over now
and those glorious birds, they’ve started up again.
Ivan Rehorek
Second Prize $200
Archipelago
He makes a sea
the colour of plums,
the colour of my grandmother’s skirt
and there’s us, like islets adrift,
odd-matched as the cat, the starfish,
the fledgling with its blue eye still clamped,
atolls, barely remembering how our edges fit
swallowers of gems that fell
from her pockets,
our history in amber and amethyst,
we call at Christmas,
collide, meander politely away
keep borders intact,
leave reefs unexplored.
He makes an ocean
the colour of ghosts.
Suzi Mezei
Third Prize $100
Helene Castles
2018 Ruqayyah Ibourki Ekphrasis
Poetry Competition
Created and sponsored
by Abdul Ibourki and administered by the Goulburn Valley Writers Group Inc.
Featuring the work ‘Connecting Waters’ by Yorta Yorta artist Troy Firebrace
This competition will
be judged by selected members of the Goulburn Valley Writers Group Inc.
and the Dungala Kaiela Writing Awards.
First Prize: $300
Second Prize: $200
Third Prize: $100
Using the image of ‘Connecting Waters’ by Troy Firebrace,
produce a poem or literary description of the work
to a maximum of 16 lines.

The art work will be on display at Kaiela Arts for the month of July.

Artist: Troy Firebrace
Medium: Acrylic on canvas - Measurements: L 160cm x H 120cm