2022 Open Sky – Ekphrastic Writing Competition
Sincere thanks to Shelley A. Leedhal, 2022 Open Sky – Ekphrastic Writing Adjudicator,
and congratulations to all those chosen for recognition!
Shannon May Craig, Fort St. John, BC – “The Rain Felt Like Sunshine” (Inspired by ‘Little Bee’ by Caily Oldershaw)
1. Aleisha Hendry, Dawson Creek, BC – “Static” (Inspired by Tracy Krauss’s “White Noise”)
2. Barbara Daley, Fort St. John, BC – “Beach Rocks” (Inspired by Eliza Massey Stanford’s “Beach Rocks”)
3. Dori Braun, Pouce Coupe, BC – “Little Bee” (Inspired by Caily Oldershaw’s “Little Bee”)
4. Tony Takacs, Chetwynd, BC – “The Shack” (Inspired by Kim Ans’s “The Shack”)
5. Shannon May Craig, Fort St John, BC – “I’m done” (Inspired by Donna Bozarth’s “I’m Done”)
6. Pamela den Ouden, Fort St John, BC – “Father and Daughter” (Inspired by Kathie Young’s “Father and Daughter”)
7. Norma Rrae, Fort St John, BC – “Choose Your Adventure” (Inspired by Drixx Salvador’s “Serenity”)
8. Katelyn Vandersteen, Fort Nelson, BC – “Untitled (Wolf)” (Inspired by “Untitled (Wolf)” by Ava Gairdner)
Note from Juror:
“It was a pleasure to read the diverse submissions for the Ekphrastic Writing Competition. I’ve chosen “The Rain Felt Like Sunshine” for the Distinguished Award, as it appealed on many levels: the interesting title; the use of alliteration and assonance; the generous use of colour (ideal for Ekphrastic poetry); the lovely idea of “A rain coat travelling/through wind and through ages”; the evocation of mood; the form (written in tercets); and the thematic consistency. There were many fine poems here and I congratulate each of the writers.” – Shelley A. Leedahl, Ladysmith, BC
Distinguished Award Winner
The rain felt like sunshine by Shannon May Craig
The rain felt like sunshine
A darker horizon and
the distance of time,
brightens the sunset of youth.
Aged clouds turn to silver,
streaked yellow and bronze,
and the light softens to rose.
A rain coat travelling
through wind and through ages.
The thunder replayed as a whisper.
The fog rolls away
and our memories with it.
The colours stain brighter than pain.
A past dipped in nostalgia
and brush strokes of gold.
The downpour is erased by the sun.
Chosen Award Winner
Static by Aleisha Hendry
Ambient sounds still carry
The background noise still lingers
Silence isn’t truly silent
Birds singing, dogs barking, children laughing
All become part of the static
As it drifts on the wind
A ringing so deep within the mind
Blocking out all the rest
Does it exist if no one else can hear it
Personal profound sound
Rises and falls in unheard tempo
Louder and louder until nothing is left
But the never-ending ringing
Chosen Award Winner
Beach Rocks by Barbara Daley
The beaches are peopled by pebbles
Each lovely face says “read me”
Every stone has a story to feel
Where I have been ,
What has happened to me
I have tumbled and fallen and cracked
My edges stricken by others
Sometimes excavated and fracked
Sometimes torn from my brothers
The beaches are peopled by pebbles
Each stoney face says “read me”
Chosen Award Winner
Little Bee by Dori Braun
Across saltwater
far beyond winter’s hold
rain clouds tug
at a broken sky
beneath swoop of shadow
gold of hill
she stands
holding steady
the heave and tow
of a tender heart
Chosen Award Winner
I’m done by Shannon May Craig
I’m coming to terms with it.
It’s been acknowledged… and nearly addressed.
My ivory elephant is outfitted in
shame, humility, and
grief.
I tell myself to feel grateful. Forcing it through,
like a square peg.
But it’s hollow. It feels false and cold.
It only numbs the regret
of paths worth taking
and decisions I should have made.
I label myself as a traitor, and I wait
to be decimated and ground into dust.
Too tired to pick up the pieces.
My brain fogs and my vision blurs.
The only thing left to do
is sleep.
I’m not sure how long.
Chosen Award Winner
The Shack by Tony Takacs
I remember the path as though it were yesterday,
the smells of autumn, the cool breeze breathing down my neck,
like a spirit’s fingers tickling me, silent, invisibly.
I’m alarmed at the thought but know it’s just the wind.
At the end of the path it still stands majestic, alone, we called it the shack. The escape from reality,
The place a person could just be whoever.
Free from the judgment and the shackles of society.
So many meals shared during our childhood,
I see mom standing in the window calling us in for dinner.
Dad tinkered in the backyard, so many memories of warm fires, hot meals and board games in the evening.
No technology, no phones, just sleeping bags on the front yard under the stars, lemonade on the front porch.
I snap back to reality, dilapidated, worn out, a dump, words many may use to describe our beloved shack. Long ago sold no longer in the family.
Wind once again tickling my neck, eerie noise from the creaking shack, beckoning, calling me home.
I see the potential, the worn wood and broken windows a labor of love to restore, maybe it will be ours again.
Chosen Award Winner
Father and Daughter by Pamela den Ouden
When I was in grade ten a boy named
Mark Petersen asked me if my father was a cowboy—
My father—who rolled his own cigarettes
Pinching the loose tobacco from the can
Spreading and tapping it just so
Rolling the thin paper backwards and forwards
Around the line of loose tobacco
Licking the glued strip first to the left then to the right
Rolling the shape between his thumb and fingers
To seal the brown fibers in the paper
Then lighting up, his head tilted back
Blowing blue-grey O’s
That rose to the ceiling
My father—who was a cowboy
Out west a century ago
Breaking horses and driving cattle
Showed us kids how to tie half hitches and sheet bends
He’d throw a lasso around us as we stood
Still as fence posts
He taught me to splice two ropes into a thing of beauty
To knit socks and cook chili and stuff a turkey
In his seventies he was still a crack shot—
The sweet aroma of gun oil clings to my memories
Chosen Award Winner
Choose Your Adventure by Mel Mason
1 Serenity.
2 ‘Serenity now’ is the mantra taught in recovery. Move on to 4
3 but that’s not the beginning, so go back one
4 your adventure begins with half a soul
5 the task is to grow
6 mud masks from mother’s womb, but it’s best to end here.
7 Sow seeds of wisdom in your garden of life or skip to 18
8 reap self-esteem, bravery and infinite self-doubts
9 pick a brain food- empathy, honesty or strength. You can’t have all three
10 take note of your inventory- love, compassion, and kindness. Once depleted, you can’t get more
11 move one ahead to select a good, virtuous soul
12 now you’ve been bullied and cry through your mask, back to 7
13 so, you use drugs to numb the pain
14 addiction is a bitch; go back to 3
15 even if you win, you lose; return to 5
16 reward is your whole soul
17 but each line throws you back one
18 and the flowers you’ve tended
19 cause an allergic reaction, renew at 6
20 deadhead hope, because truly, you’re still at 14
Chosen Award Winner
Untitled (Wolf) by Katelyn Vandersteen
Desperate for something he didn’t know, couldn’t understand, the wolf chased the rainbow. Running until his feet bled. The pads turned red, and pain lingered when they touched the ground. The rainbow was more important though. Everything else faded away as he ran. An eternal game of chase. As he ran, paws bleeding, the rainbow shed bits of itself the way a wolf sheds its fur. The strands of color fell, landing on the wolf and so the first rainbow wolf was born.