TO CELEBRATE WORLD POETRY DAY - A WARTIME EVACUEE'S POEM

This poem was written by Joan Ozanne, a child evacuee who fled Guernsey to England in June 1940. When Germany invaded Guernsey a week later, Joan lived in London for five years, amongst the terrors of the Blitz. In Summer 1945 she returned to Guernsey where she still resides. I love the poem so much that I placed it at the front of my book 'Guernsey Evacuees':

My childhood was left inside.

when I closed my bedroom door.

In the hall, distraught, father waits, mother weeps.

The dog unaware, wags his tail

and licks the tears from my face.

Reluctantly we speed to the harbour.

The smell of tobacco smoke on

father’s jacket will remain with me.

On the ship we say goodbye, perhaps forever.

I feel empty like a shell

You can read the first part of 'Guernsey Evacuees; The Forgotten Evacuees of the Second World War' for free at this Amazon link - just click on the book's cover:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Guernsey-Evacuees-Gillian-Mawson/dp/0752470191/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345040949&sr=1-1

Update: June 2014: I am completing a book of 100 British evacuation stories, with wartime family photographs, to be published in September 2014 by Pen and Sword Books.  All of the evacuees featured spent all or part of the war on the British mainland.
To find out more and preview some of the stories and wartime photographs, see:  http://guernseyevacuees.wordpress.com/britains-evacuees/