It is perhaps appropriate, in the middle of our two-day feature on the young writers coming out of the UEA FLY Festival, that the winning poem for the IS&T Pick of the Month for June should come from a young writer in the next stage of her process and be her first published work. The word ‘beautiful’ kept coming up again and again with respect to Megan O’Reilly’s exquisitely moving ’15th of April’. We should all have someone like this to remember us.
Megan is a 22 year old Creative Writing and English literature student living in Bath. She is currently working on her first pamphlet of poetry inspired by the loss of her best friend. You can find her café loitering and petting every dog she meets, that is if you don’t confuse her with her identical twin sister.
She has asked that her £10 ‘prize’ be donated to Doctors of the World.
15th of April
Saturday morning,
I watch condensation drip down the window
and steam rise from the brim of a blue coffee cup.
Today marks a year since your death
and I still sit at this same window,
sip from a cup you gave me two Christmases ago.
I reach out to wipe the glass,
and the garden comes into focus,
just as a figure steps out onto the lawn,
a shape made of delicate bones:
a deer, alone and trembling,
as she picks her way through the long grass.
Deer don’t come down this far from the forest.
Perhaps she came for the mushrooms;
the morels and the fresh shoots of grass.
I move closer to the window, she stops,
body juddering like an old movie reel.
Then she looks right at me.
I am close enough to see her dark brown eyes.
She tilts her head to the side, as if to speak.
But there are no words.
She disappears and leaves the garden bare.
But for an instant, your brown eyes looked back at me.
********
Voters’comments included:
It’s beautifully paced as well as poignant and resonant. That last image really lingers with me, too!
Beautifully written, emotive and heartbreaking
This poem made me cry . Very moving.
Beautiful ❤
Megan’s poem was so beautiful, it moved me beyond words.
Such a beautiful metaphor
This is such a tender, understated poem, which captures grief with sensitivity and without a hint of mawkishness.
Bravery
This poem has inspired me in the ways in which I view poetry, it is so personal and heart-achingly beautiful! I love that the poet has used her own experiences to create such a meaningful peice. The delicate and touching way she writes about love and loss inspires me to love each day to the full with the people I love most.
Heartfelt, poised, not overstated.
This poem is powerful and has strong imagery.
This piece of poetry I can really relate to, you can feel the emotion in this and I think Megan has done an amazing job in writing this piece!
This is a beautiful and moving poem that caused me to reflect on loved ones I have lost. It delicately depicts the profound presence loved ones have in our lives even after they have passed. This is an emotionally raw and thought provoking poem.
The poem exquisitely and powerfully expresses the natural, everyday moments that make and break us as we experience loss.
This made me cry; it touched me so profoundly and I was there with her. A beautiful piece!
The poem touched me the most and I’m able to relate to it
The vivid imagery and innocence of the the deer juxtaposing with the lost friend is very poignant.