Peter Dix Memorial Prize for Poetry 2011

Congratulations to the winner of this year's Senior Poetry Prize (pictured), Opeline Kellett (V form) for her body of work. Also, congratulations to Patrick O'Malley and Igor Verkhovskiy, who both receive Commendations. Over the next few days, several entries will be posted here. First off, Opeline's poems 'Winter's Onset' and 'Descriptions'-

'Descriptions' by Opeline Kellett

Aching
but you can't describe the pain.
I sit by your bedside
I can only imagine,
Never feel.
I don't want to.
I suppose.

But it can't be right that only you should suffer.
You with your fragile limbs
and your tired eyes.

Those tired eyes
that once held life.

Your gaunt gaze
looks to me
looks through me
to a life
bygone,
quondam,
but not forgotten.

Your passive lips
don't move,
stay dormant.
Your forlorn eyes
do not.

So I leave you to your daydreams,
Daydreamer.

But I'm aching, aching
and I can't describe the pain.

'Winter's Onset' by Opeline Kellett

Austere corridors of crunching leaves
simultaneously lifted and blown in a breeze.
Fleeting hooves across the sand
swaying patterns brushing season over land.

Acquisitive gales cause a build up of heaps
soon raked up by unwilling feet.
Forlorn critters shelter by naked hedge.
Vagrant warriors sense the winter's chilling pledge.

Apathetic onlookers perceiving this as normal
stressing over charges, bones feeling colder.
February's Spring requests your presence
but its daydreams are far from impending.

You preserve summer hopes despite the turbulence resounding.