Results 2024 Jean Stone Poetry Competition

FIRST PLACE:
Lonely Mountains, Cecelia Scarthy

SHORT LISTED:
The Lichen Gate, Kim Nolan
Sunset in the Kitchen, Jake Dennis

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Winning Poem

Lonely Mountains
by Cecelia Scarthy

mountains appear so lonely
their summit cold
wind freezing and fawning at bones
isolation in ascension
and an alien like solace
when I stare at these Montenegrin mountains
today, these mountains made me think of you
you kissed my lips once
but you have kissed my mind a hundred times since
and lavished my soul with licks of poetic wetness
these Montenegrin mountains made me miss you
a future you
the death of you
after a lifetime of learning love
the sadness that seeps down from its ridges
trickles its way into the depths of me
and to the base of my open heart
missing someone before loving them
struck me as profound
the joy of learning to love you
married with the loneliness
that I will one day lose you
to these Montenegrin mountains.