'Life' and 'Petals'

Two poems from the entries for the Senior Poetry Prize :-


'Life', by Lauren O'Connell

Life
a sparrow’s flight
through a room surrounded by darkness
in one window and out the other.

For a brief instant
a glimpse of light
warmth on the feathers
gone.

How could it yearn
for light, for warmth
for life
knowing only the darkness?
Now
how can it not?


'Petals', by Rowland Cooper

The sun shines,
Clouds drift lazily
Across the azure sky,
And new flowers are opening,

Turning their faces
Towards freedom.
The last to bloom
Is our shrub of roses.

Its scarlet petals
Take no orders
From their fellow flowers.
They live by their own rules.

Spring's finale of
Pinks and whites
Is spattered with blood-
Coloured beauty.

The gorse is snapping on the hill,
Behind the house, while
The lakeside is reverberating
With the sound of exploding balsam.

Where is the queen of the garden now?
All that remains is a stalk of thorns ...
The only beauty left behind
Is swirling petals in our memories.