1998

​

RENGAY     (Judges: John Stevenson and Ebba Story)

 

First Place  ($100)

 

DYING SPARK

 

lightning flash—

a bug streak glows

on the windshield

 

in the night heron’s beak

a wriggling glint of silver

 

Roman ruin:

the candle sputtering

deep in the tunnel

 

ten-wheeler hauling sheep

a spark from the nudflaps

 

graveyard shift—

lighting one digarette

with another

 

photographin Hiroshima

the sudden flash

 

            Rich Krivcher

            John Thompson

            Michael Dylan Welch

 

 

Honorable Mentions

 

STILL LIFE

 

the Amish quilt

draped over a low branch

dappled sunlight

 

on the faded checkerboard

red waits to be kinged

 

worn wooden bowl

a few green apples

from the garden

 

soda bottle vase

a single stem bouquet

of Queen Anne’s lace

 

lost orchard ladder

climbed by morning glories

 

rusty horseshoe

hung high in the walnut tree-

wind borne laughter

 

            John Thompson

            Garry Gay

 

 

SIERRA

 

morning campfire smoke

rising slowly through the trees—

a distant summit

 

sunlight spills over the ridge—

our breath clouds disappear

 

scent of warmed pines . . .

the blue of a jay’s feather

fallen from the sky

 

constant crescendo

within the waterfall’s veil

a floating rainbow

 

granite dome h igh above the lake

wind ripples its reflection

 

boulder hopping

with no set direction

the cricket leaps

 

            Helen K. Davie

            John Thompson

 

 

FOR A MOMENT

 

thick fog

at the crossroads—

twisted oak

 

silhouetted by chimney smoke,

the neighbour’s weathervane

 

distant thunderheads—

by the monkey bars

a child’s glove

 

misty field—

starlings scatter

at the tractor’s backfire

 

the hammock gently sways

jet trail from tree to tree

 

for a moment

between your cupped fingers,

my breath cloud

 

            Jocelyn Conway

            Michael Dylan Welch