Santa Sabina College Poetry Competition 2025

In Term 4, we introduced the Santa Sabina Poetry Competition. We were overwhelmed with the response of over 60 entries, and thank everyone who entered, for bringing life to the competition.

A big thank you to Mary Shoard, Angela Bunquin and Allana Hempenstall who took the time during the busiest time of the year to judge the competition.

Winners in each category won a $25 Dymocks gift voucher and were presented with a Certificate. Runners up received a bundle of literary gifts as well as a Certificate. We also had two special prizes.

All award winners will have their work published in our 2026 Writing and Poetry Anthology. 

Gioia House 

Winner: Lydia Wang 

Runner up: Emma Cooper

Years 7-8 

Winner: Deeksha Kandimalla 

Runner Up: Maya Santiago 

Years 9-11

Winner: Gabrielle Karakatsanis

Runner Up: Chloe De Cruz Maundrell 

Special Prizes

Minty Slattery – Songwriting

Molly Bonner – Voice development

The three winning poems can be read below.

The Photographs 

The photographs on the shelf groaned with age,
their frames chipped, glass clouded with dust.
I brushed a finger across one –
and a smile looked back, trapped behind the years. 

The wind crept through the hallway, 
on its late morning stroll.
The photographs whispered softly, 
calling to anyone who might still remember.

Each face a window to a story once told-
a birthday cake, a seaside laugh,
a child holding her mother’s hand.
They spoke in silence,
their voices fading with the dust.

Time hurried past them, 
blurring their edges, 
but in the centre of the decay
one photograph gleamed,
a woman’s eyes still alive with light.

And for a heartbeat, 
the room breathed life. 
The air shimmered with laughter long gone, 
the dust turned golden in the sun, 
and every forgotten face-
seemed to lift its gaze,
remembered at last.

Lydia Wang
Year 5

***

My palms tell a tale 

My palms tell a tale, 
a tale of the easy life,
a tale of smiles and laughs.
a tale that is joyful, with a happy ending. 
My palms tell a tale. 

My mother’s palm tells a tale, 
a tale of hardship, 
a tale of counting every dime, 
a tale wishing your daughter can be more.
My mother’s palm tells a tale.

My grandma’s palm tells a tale, 
a tale of floating by, 
a tale of doing what you’re told, 
a tale of wishing your daughter can be more. 
My grandma’s palm tells a tale. 

My great grandma’s palms tell a tale, 
a tale of covering your face incase you need to run,
a tale of craving freedom from oppression,
a tale of wishing your daughter survives. 
My great grandma’s palm tells a tale. 

My palm tells a tale, 
a tale of the weight one carries,
a tale of navigating a new world, 
a tale of wishing to be more. 
My palm tells a tale.

Deeksha Kandimalla
Year 8

Community poem

In the sunlight showcased in flames,
Bright blazing bush first spoke his hallowed name,
“Moses, Moses!” “On holy ground, you stand”
Upon himself, Moses takes righteous hand,
And they follow through parted waters on untouched sand
And by God’s will writes ten commands

Crucified, died, and was buried to give us everlasting life,
The good lord in unwavering faith was crossed to end our strife,
We wear this symbol broadcast and place it,
In churches, homes and halls of hallows, holy ground, we see his face
Forever moulded carved wood or stone remains his dying grace

Now what’s left is whispered prayers awaiting our messiah,
Across the heavens, stars hold wishes for a power so much higher,
The Bible which sings hymns of praise,
The evangelical scriptures sing one which phrase
“For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them”
And where we all gather in common ground we become the notes that strung them,
Forsaken words in which thy truth live devout,
In Christian community, we listen for faith is blind and only the faithless doubt 
So leave behind selfish woes and material things tainted thoughts do pose,
And have trust and live in God’s plan
Have mercy on a world in which the devil is so much stronger than a man
And rest worries and world-wearied flesh,
For in God’s kingdom lives are renewed afresh,
Mortality abolished in the eternity of our souls’ immunity

Forever we live amongst wayward skies forthwith in common unity.

Gabrielle Karakatsanis
Year 11