First Prize – Michelle Brock
| she teaches me to tuck my bed sheets with hospital corners . . the aunt who never speaks of the child she gave away | |
| parsnips and onions roasting in the oven . . . I quiz my mother about the handsome stranger in an old family photo | |
| helping Dad dig up a giant potato in my fifth spring I confide that one day I’ll grow up and leave him | |
| everlasting daisies shed petals on the windowsill – this longing to hold on to things I cannot grasp |
Second Prize – Eiko Masubuchi ( 増渕英子)
| the long road to the village the long road to the depth of my soul | |
| trillions of my cells filled with wind and light of the tiny village deep in the valley | |
| a long way to be reconciled with the tangled feelings towards my roots |
Third Prize – Tony Williams
| after the earth roared a child’s head and hands rise through rubble – an emerging sapling reaches for sunlight | |
| roots embrace leaves mutter in the breeze fearful forest battle drilled, on watch for fire, drought and saw |
Third Prize – Pamela A. Babusci
| like the deepest roots of a weed his lies are bottomless spreading like wildfire | |
| tearing out the taproot from an unknown flower . . . what deep enigmas still remain hidden? |