Competition

Highly Commended

Pain, Heartache, Loss
by Rob Harrington
West Moreton Anglican College, Karrabin, Qld

We left our war torn homeland in the dead of the night
Scurrying like frightened rats along darkened back roads
Imprisoned by our fear and scared witless by senseless fighting and killing
Death surrounded and enclosed us

PAIN HEARTACHE LOSS

We searched for a place of refuge where our family could thrive and grow
Australia the land of endless opportunities was our chosen destination
How could we know that we had exchanged one form of prison for another
Australia is nothing but a caged hell

PAIN HEARTACHE LOSS

We are imprisoned behind a barbed wire fence
Nothing but dust and heartache prevails
Our hearts are broken and empty
Beaten down by a bureaucracy

PAIN HEARTACHE LOSS

Highly Commended

Untitled
by Tara Heffernan
St Mary’s College, Ipswich, Qld

What lies we tell in our poetic gestures!
Mankind so gently drifts from the succor of truth and honesty
Shakespeare would tell us tales of despair in Love's eye
That there is a true beauty in death when parted from our lovers

Blake might tell us his love is gone!
But should we care as we do?
To think our hopes may rest on that 'destiny'
That lie!

Yeats tosses his brown penny and meets his lover by the gardens
But what of these curious encounters?
The intoxicating anticipation, the impetuous passions
The beguiling pleasures of 'love'

All the poets history offers couldn't compose
A truthful account of that uncanny emotion that falls from the sky
Taints our lives, entraps our hearts,
Perplexes our minds

While Wilde speaks of a nightingale bleeding for a red rose
On what a weak thread our happiness hangs
For our lives to be so haunted by this fickle emotion!

What then should we do to tame these entangled passions?
Take heed from the poets of times long since passed?
Perchance let them consume us, overthrow our perception.

Highly Commended

The Hell that burns Humanity
by Kevin Bui
West Moreton Anglican College, Karrabin, Qld

I've never had much belief in religion
but now, I think that's changed.
Hell...has just come to Earth.
The napalm has been dispatched from perdition,
like a letter, sent from the devil himself,
summoning me to his fiery home.
The cries of people,
the blasts of gunpowder,
the rumble of tanks,
combining into one omnipresent, destructive sound
a sound that delivers fear into hearts and minds,
from the bravest of soldiers to the most peaceful of villagers,
the sound of Satan's growl.
Just yesterday, I thought I was living in Vietnam.
Now... I know I'm in Hell.