Jeremy was delighted to present Sherly Balzon with her prize for being the joint-winner of the ‘Travel Through Words’ creative writing competition, a competition we ran in 2021. Sherly was due to collect her prize along with fellow joint-winner Prerna Shah in Dublin in 2021, but was unable to travel. Sherly was presented with her prize at the beautiful Listowel Arms Hotel, Listowel.
We launched ‘Travel Through Words’ in 2021 as a means of encouraging writers to indulge their longing for travel, and curiosity for distant places, during the Covid pandemic restrictions, demonstrating perhaps the power of the written word to transcend boundaries. The exercise entailed sharing images on our social media channels, and writers submitting pieces inspired by the particular image.
Sherly Balzon was awarded the prize for her beautiful prose poem ‘My Search Ends Here’. Sherly is an Indian nurse and writer based in Mullingar, Co Westmeath. Sherly’s poem was clearly inspired by the image below, but she appropriated it in an intimately personal way. While personal, the narrated scenes, characters and dialogue seemed natural to the image’s context. The image that inspired Sherly was the sun-blessed abbey in Provance.
My search ends here
Under the clear sky roof,
The meadow spreads out like a green carpet.
On either side, stretches the mountain walls,
The sight of a valley,
An abbey in the midst draws me,
For the meditation and peace that I wish long
To delve into,
To live my life thereafter,
My gaze turns up to the huge walls and the tiny windows,
I perceive darkness and solitude behind it,
For a moment, I imagine myself as a nun of the past:
‘A young girl walks in the courtyard,
Four high walls around,
Rosary beads in right hand,
A heavy prayer book in the left,
Disconsolate, tries to obliterate
The memories of her parents,
Siblings and friends, whom she left behind,
She goes upstairs to the room,
In silence and tears,
Approaches the small window,
Sees the blue skies and the green mountains,
Embraces the scent of the meadow,
And listens to the music of the wind,
Against the walls and sighs.’
The next moment, I turn around to look up,
At the cloudless magnificent sky,
I observe the green blue mountains,
Are prettier and mightier,
The meadow reflects the colours of the rainbow,
The sun smiles and its rays crossing my path,
I amble along the waving stalks in freedom,
Listening to the birds and murmur of the bees.
My search for peace and happiness ends here,
In this nature.
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