Ekprastic Writing Challenge
Congratulations to Dulara J of Year 8 2024 for being chosen for the November Geelong Writers Ekprastic Writing Challenge. The Geelong Writers group run an Ekphrastic poetry challenge every month. Ekphrastic writing is a poem or piece of writing inspired by art.
Dulara’s piece was inspired by a visual the group presented. The image “Complexity” by John Heritage provided the stimulus for original ideas about light and shade, intersections interactions and growth.
The Apothecary’s Wallpaper by Dulara J.
Leaves. Spiky green leaves, as far as the eye could see, even on the ceiling.
An interesting choice of wallpaper, the owner of the old fashioned apothecary shop had interesting tastes…to say the least. The leaves seemed to burst out of the wall, almost in 4D, with a glossy sheen and papery veins that seemed to whisper and rustle, and if you stared too long it looked as though a gentle breeze were swaying it. But curiously enough, with the seasons, so changed the leaves. When autumn fell, the glossy greens turned crisp colors of fire and earth, and in winter the leaves became skeletons with delicate frames and thorny vines, in spring the leaves bearing the most beautiful blossoms.
Everyone chalked it up to blunt, boring logic, that Ophelia, the owner, had merely put up a new wallpaper every season, but something about it just seemed to say otherwise. It was no secret that the apothecary shop had a certain charm, but charm to what extent?
I once asked Ophelia if the shop was magic, if she was magic, lured in by her kind, twinkling eyes and the knowing lilt to her mouth, quirked up just so, and from that mouth fell a pretty little laugh that twinkled almost as much as her eyes.
“Magic exists only if you believe in it.” She smiled
And they say seeing is believing, so trust me when I say I believed fully and truly in magic when I touched a hand to the moving leaves, and instead of finding cold, flat wall, found a doorway, framed by an arch of leaves and flowers, for it was spring, a doorway that glowed with possibilities…
And all I had to do was step inside.
Little Stories, Big Ideas
Dulara has also received two Honourable Mentions on her writing piece submitted to Little Stories, Big Ideas in Term 3. Little Stories, Big Ideas is a writing competition for Australian Secondary School Students. What amazing achievement Dulara. Congratulations!
