Stephanie Cartwright
Congratulations to the winners of our recent Winter in Ōtautahi competition – Stephanie Cartwright for her evocative photograph and Melanie McKerchar for her poem, Winter Wait.
The judging panel of Marianne Hargreaves, Jamie Hanton, Kiri Jarden and Zara Potts were impressed with all the entries but chose Stephanie’s photograph as being ‘particularly evocative of winter, while also showing the potential of new life.”
Melanie McKerchar’s poem, Winter Wait, went ‘beyond the landscape and pastoral, and had some wonderful imagery, including bored fireplaces, and a striking first line.”
Congratulations to our winners, and thank you to all who submitted entries to this competition.
Winter Wait – Melanie McKerchar
they don’t let us burn things anymore
when the bite of ice grips the bones
making brittle comfort lost
smoke and sea-fog have danced together too long
pallid yellow bedspread on this city
sitting between ocean and alps
heat rises and only those on rungs
higher than this gasp with joy
at the grandeur of snow covered peaks
the chimney’s all fell with the city
and the fireplaces are bored
with the emptiness in their lives
and now we bundle apart fearing for our very breath
as night draws in early
painting the sky fire across plains
patch-worked for wealth we’ll never see
winter is cruel at the bottom
there’s only cold comfort to be had in beauty