The Eleanor Luxton Historical Foundation Creative Writing Competition
POETRY WINNERS
The Eleanor Luxton Foundation sponsors a writing competition each year, for high school students, with a generous cash prize for the winners. Students submit creative writing, in either poetry or prose, that tells the story of an aspect of the history of Banff, the Bow Valley and/or the people who have lived here. The Foundation wants to support awareness of the amazing people and events that have made this area of the Bow Valley, and Banff, what it is today.
2023 Poetry First Prize
A Guided Scene of Our History
by Charles Vicente
Paintings of infinite beauty
An affinity with nature
The best course to the gateway of serenity
Where dreams bloom, its gift consoles dilemma
In the forest of Banff
Where your mind is at sea but your soul is discerned
Wishes upon dandelions
Buoyant on water after its release
To the mountains where we belong
Just deer and trees
Rivers that are your veins
Forests that are your thoughts
A pulse from the ground
Wind, silence as the song
The land of summit,
Cascade crests that landmark for tourists that survey
The land of daring soldiers
The respect for the older
A land so peaceful
The birth of Banff
Fable of the hot springs
3 Canadians who unearthed
A natural mineral of cocoon
Its surrounding reservoir
Gleams in the ditch
Coast to coast railway
Trains tracked far
Valley, mountains and lake
Marked by eminence and distinction
The label of our uniqueness
Chronicle, history, and memoir
The origin resource of the Indigenous
Used for trade and travel
Fishing and trapping
Ceremonies and gaming
Present to territory 6, 7, 8
A growing elation
Expressing gratitude for their nourishment
Region that brimmed with abundance
Prominence to fame
Basis from its creation
Eminence from the sublime
A Destination that enthralls the people
The view of a staggering masterpiece.