		Poetry Competition The winners of the Friends International in Southampton Poetry Competition were announced at Open House on Friday 4th June, and each was presented with a book prize. It was a difficult decision for the judges. All the winners were from China. Mark's Yearn for New Life vividly expressed some of the ways in which coming to a new environment can challenge the way we think. Linda's Sitting in Southampton Common was a perfectly constructed poem, linking her present experience to thoughts of home. But Angelica's Spring Thoughts finally won the first prize with its depth of feeling and imaginative use of language. Look out for our next competition. You could be a winner too!

First Prize - "Spring Thoughts"

I saw a cloud outside my window, shy
Away from earth reality, so high
And soft like willow catkins float, below
A petal daffodils flutter away

I hope you see it. All the beauty shines
When seeming careless, secrets cloud there hides
When thrilling in wind of spring, unnoticed still
Is daffo, bidding farewell t’April, fragile

I hope you see it, knowing truth is so
Its sole desire, all is, to make it whole,
Not sunshine but that footstep, the steps
Once stopped before it, once again, once…

But when I looked up there with you in mind
From lines, the cloud dispersed, nowhere to find

Angelica

Second Prize - "Sitting in Southampton Common"

Sitting in Southampton Common,
Missing my hometown faraway.

Golden daffodils everywhere smiling in the breeze,
Are the spring flowers in blossom in China?

Children chasing and singing joyfully in the green grass,
Are you, my dearest son, missing me, your mum?

Flocks of doves flying freely here and there,
Are they trying to bring peace to the world?

White clouds floating in the blue sky,
Are they, like me, wondering the way to the home?

Sitting in Southampton Common,
Missing my hometown faraway.

Linda

FIW	© Friends International 2010 Charity No 1094095 2009