The 2025 Open Your Mind Poetry Competition asked poets to respond to the theme ‘Threads of Us’. We received more than 40 entries and the winners were announced as part of MIFWA’s Mental Health Week celebrations.
Open Your Mind Poetry Competition is our annual competition open to people living with or caring for someone with mental health challenges. Thank you to Leonard James and Deanne Leber for judging the competition and providing thoughtful insights into the wonderful entries.
Lorikeet Category
First Place
‘Peanuts Keep Falling On My Head’ By Anita
In real time my mind’s a jumble
Heart and body out of synch
A baby elephant sealed in thick skin
Scared but excited I try to break free
Keep tripping up – clamber upright again
Slowly opening my eyes and heart
Strange new feelings grow inside
A sense of belonging, even from afar
Feeling the memories when it’s safe and quiet
Sharing hot meals made with love and care
Watching Shaun the Sheep on TV
Unexpected kindness everywhere
Inside I sing with freedom and joy
Full volume, out of tune
But who cares!
A gentle deep rumbling hum inside
Thanking all the people who care
Trusting myself to find you again
Second Place
‘Spring’ by Fiona
You share with me your sorrow
The loss of what once was
A knowing that tomorrow
Brings hope amongst the storms
Disappointment fades, a revelations rays
The new dawns promised filled sky
I write these words so distance breaks
So time and space disintegrates..
Your will to fight, regroup – restored
Your mind renewed – clean slate
Your journey, it’s clear, a masterpiece!
You’re the easel, brush, the canvas, paint
In all that is, conduct with grace –
design with poise, it’s not too late
Understand you’re one with nature, commune with your spirits joy
Be present now and breathe in the deep – reclaim your life in all you seek
Highly Commended
‘We Are All Stars‘ by Haylee
We are all like stars, we underestimate all that we are, but we still seem to capture the light no matter how far or how tight. We still see the light and capture it as it is so beautiful so rare so bright oh what a sight.
A shooting star igniting within all of us. We see a glimpse of ourselves when looking at someone else its like looking in a mirror, we all feel fear as it comes near and life sometimes feels unclear and we see another tear, but we also realise that the windshield is bigger than the review mirror because what’s Infront of you is so much more important then what’s behind you. We all need the view especially when we feel like where living without a clue, because each day with a different mindset the world can be brand new for me and for you. Sometimes we may feel blue but that’s when the time is due to Dial the phone to remember your not alone because we all have a story, we all have a name and while we may not all be the same, we all come into this world tame, and we all deserve to live without any shame.
We all need the light to break through the darkness; we all need someone else’s spark to ignite within us because the light is what brings us all together hope is what brings us all together. Hope is what we need forever.
WA Wide Category
First Place
‘Visitor’ by Madeleine
Eyes shut against the clangour of the ward I didn’t see you enter, but there you are squeezed between the bed and the wall surprising me by joy. My grandson, so tall now. I am awed by your visit to this looming hospital, know your edginess of clanking lifts, your fear of crowds in claustrophobic passages, the stuff of nightmares. I heard that you cleaned your room in the night, anxious about me. I am so grateful for your smile, my angel in disguise.
Jacket beaded with raindrops, smell of wattle in your hair bringing awareness of the outside world. You take my hand in your large one, how small it was when you were born, and feel the threads of connection strong as the silken filaments of a web. We remain like that, no need to talk. Same blood, inherited genes apparent in our shared dark eyes, an enduring connection that lasts a lifetime.
Second Place
‘The Moth’ by Fiona
As a larvae I struggle to slide along the path,
Partaking of mulberry leaves & twisted silk
Each thread that I wove was a memory
Silent in its own right, making Grandma’s
knitted blanket fall heavy on my cold body.
As I got fatter as a lavae I wondered if I would burst
Many larvae like me, wove their own stories in silk
I always wished that I could flutter like a butterfly away from my woes.
With no avail, each stitch in the tapestry wove the next development.
Winter fell, I chose a bare branch & began weaving alone
Each thread crosshatches telling a story.
Warm in my cocoon I slept – I wormed my way out of the situation.
Now a moth that could flutter under moonlight nights.
Third Place
‘Falling’ by Melissa
Anxiety is the quietest scream
heard
only
by
me
the rapid gunfire of my heart
beats in my throat
my breath caught, distraught
dangling on the edge of the cliff
cracked, crumbling
faltering, fingers fumbling
gripping, slipping…
How do I catch myself
while tumbling into this abyss
of
free
fall
fear?
Highly Commended
‘The Weaving’ by Janelle
I do not see the pattern,
only the underside,
knots and tangles,
ends frayed from pulling too hard,
threads that broke before the story finished.
There are colours I would not have chosen—
the dark, the dull, the painful red
that stains the softest places.
And yet, they hold the gold in contrast.
Some days I want to cut the cloth clean through,
start again,
choose a different thread.
But always, I return to the loom,
hands trembling,
but willing.
Highly Commended
‘Arrival To Self’ by Mimma
I walked through corridors of shadow
where silence pressed against my chest
and doubt carried my name.
Each step was stitched with fear
yet I moved slowly
like a seed pushing through stone.
I shed the voices that told me
I was less than whole
unravelled the knots of shame.
In the wreckage
I found breath
a fragile ember whispering, stay.
Resilience grew roots inside me
not loud not sudden
steady like rivers carving their way home.
Here I stood
arrival not a destination
but the becoming of self.
MIFWA thanks all entrants and congratulates the winners. All poems submitted will be published in MIFWA’s annual Open Your Mind Poetry book.
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