Writing | connectchangecatalyse

Writing Category

GUIDELINES

Sorry submissions have now closed, see winning piece below

JUDGES

Dr Renee Liang Paediatrician, playwright, poet and winner of the 2011 Sir Peter Blake award

Elisabeth Kumar

University humanities, creative writing

Dr Sharad Paul

Dermatologist, award-winning writer and finalist for 2012 New Zealander of the Year

Any questions about the competition? Email conference.competitions@aumsa.org.nz

Winning Piece

Clare McLean

Indonesia Baby

I caught the next boat the next bus

the next plane out of there,

came home but the world was a mess.

Voices were too loud, the sun was too bright,

even the air scratched me.

I came home, your face tattooed into my eyeballs

sometimes when I cry ink runs down my cheeks.

I came home shouting:

Look!

Can’t you see, can’t you see,

can’t you see?

I came home crying:

We are not in a game of musical chairs

I don’t understand why someone always

has to be left without a seat.

We are not in a game of musical chairs

I don’t understand why someone always

has to be left without a seat.

You are dust in my throat

the metallic taste of blood

in my mouth

the face of every child

we have lost.

You shook with the effort of dying.

There was a storm outside

and you couldn’t find your way home.

I waited for your cry to take down the night.

You were silent as dream.

I dreamed you, baby girl,

even as I watched you die.

I dreamed you running up the steps of your home,

I dreamed you laughing with your mother,

I dreamed you having children of your own.

I dreamed you waking up.

They all gathered there to watch you die.

The spectacle of your fitting,

your fevering, your heart thumping,

breath gasping, eyes rolling

seemed grotesque entertainment.

We shared the same God and that night

I lost you both.

Grief dove inside me sudden as a sparrow,

beat its wings hard against my ribcage.

Every breath I took whispered guilty guilty guilty.

I left you there.

I left you there all dressed up in pink frills

and clown makeup, you looked as though

you could not have been real.

They swatted the flies from your face

and started to dig your grave.

Dr Rennie Liang - A gorgeous, heartrending poem. The stanza “We shared the same God and that night /I lost you both”, coming in the middle of the poem, is a great example of word economy – very effective, and slaps the reader in the face. I love the detail of the frilly dress and the makeup, and the flies, and the way the poem returns to the horrified protagonist (a young doctor?) who runs away but is unable to leave for the rest of his/her life. The last stanza makes this very clear. Excellent use of repetition too. I can see that the writer has had some experience as a poet, as it’s an honest, confident and emotional poem.

Elisabeth Kumar - This poem is a gripping portrait of both patient and doctor/student. It uses repetition skillfully to convey the heart-wrenching philosophical anguish the speaker has around this baby's death, and though it incorporates quite a jumble of different metaphors, the overall effect is powerful and moving.

Dr Sharad Paul - A poem filled with death and reminiscence. On the poet’s use of Indonesia, one is unsure if this refers to a home place or the point of departure. A person leaves a place after seeing a child die – a life-changing moment that ultimately becomes the ‘face of every child we have lost’. The poem is full of lyric impulses, ones which make health professionals sometimes question faith, love and the impermanence of being human.

The judges would also like to award 'Tribute to Sir George Douglas Robb' by Jayana Devathasan a highly commended second place