FRIENDSHIP FORCE

Oh how the conversation roars

Around the tables and at the bars

Visiting folk from distant lands

Join forces warmly shaking hands.

Welcome speeches carefully presented

To travellers and friends contented

With wine and food aplenty

Jolly meeting with landed gentry.

Bonds and links formed that day

One and all enjoy their stay

Visiting landmarks and historic buildings

Castles, churches and fine bridges.

Now we all know time will fly

So many heartfelt goodbyes

All the memories to ship home

Mementos, photographs, vistas shown.

Alison Smith, Chester-le-Street

BELLS OF FREEDOM

Like the punch-drunk boxer

Looking for a comeback fight

Like the holy evangelist

Looking for the light

Like the bumbling professor

Researching books for insight

Like the grieving widow

Lays crying in the night

Like the poet and the painter

Whose canvases are still white

Like the best-selling author

With nothing to write

Like the actor

Whose star no longer shines bright

Like the beaten, bullied boy

Who dreams of Superman’s might

Like Franklyn’s discovery

When playing with his kite

Like a jealous lover

Who hurts out of spite

Like the adrenalin junkie

Who gets high on height

Like the poor and oppressed

Only wanting what is right

Like the orphaned child

With no parents to delight

Like the ghost hunter

Not wanting a fright

I sit and listen

For my bells of freedom tonight

(Rambling Jack Wilbury, Bowburn) David Mitchell, Bowburn, Co Durham

THE FIRST SPRING FLOWERS

When the overnight snow is lying

Deep upon the ground

The perfect little snowdrop

Can easily be found.

If they are left to habituate

How quickly they will multiply

And before you know it

They’ll be reaching for the sky.

Those tiny white fragile flowers

How do they survive?

Pushing through the dark earth

To find the sunny side.

They are the first flowers of spring

So pure, white as the driven snow

Leading the way for every other

With all the colours of the rainbow

Elizabeth Sayers, Spennymoor