WINNER
Dear Pen Pal
by Nathaniel MacCoss-Smith
Tell me more about your school
Has it got a big field like mine?
I love to play games on it with my friends
We run and laugh and joke,
Even when it’s muddy from the rain
It overlooks fields and a reservoir in the distance
What do you like to eat at lunch?
I like when we have pizza
With hot bubbly cheese on top
What is your favourite subject?
Mine is art, especially painting
Lots of greens and blues
Watercolours or acrylics
Do you ride a bus to school or bike?
I usually walk as it isn’t very far
Please write back soon
And tell me more about what’s it’s like in your twin city
One day, I hope to visit and see for myself
RUNNER-UP
What is 'Twin Cities'?
by Zoe Tsitouridis
What is 'Twin Cities'?
It's when two cities are best buddies;
They are Grenoble, Leiden, Bonn, Wroclaw;
Perm, Leon and Oxford.
They help stop painful wars,
or I'd rather be on Mars;
They show us lives on the other side of Europe,
or I'd have to cross the English Channel to find out.
A girl in Oxford says 'hi!'
another girl in Padua says 'ciao!';
A boy has croissant for breakfast in Grenoble,
another boy had apple pie for tea in Leiden;
Beethoven's note flows through River Rhine,
Alice's tale flows through River Thames;
Roman wall defended city León,
Norman mound defended castle Oxford.
So what is 'Twin Cities'?
how about you tell me now!
WINNER
Leiden, Leiden
by Alexander Holm (Leiden)
Leiden, Leiden
It has the moats,
Rivers, canals
And many boats.
People in Leiden
Are very tall
And they can all go
To the mall.
People in Leiden
Like to eat fish,
This is a very
Tasty dish.
People in Leiden
Are very smart
The city is famous
For its art.
People in Leiden
Have got the keys
So they can live
And sleep at ease.
Leiden, Leiden,
It has many towers
And many
Very pretty flowers!
RUNNER-UP
Leiden
by Matthew Perel (Leiden)
Too many canals,
Too many sweets,
Too many yummy foods to eat,
Too many bikes,
And it’s too hot.
I bike to school
And my legs hurt!
WINNER
Some cities are connected
by Nina Rives (Grenoble)
Some cities are connected
Like Bonn, Grenoble and Leiden
The Friendship is surrounded
By the poem they have written
This relation is priceless
But even if they're far away
They are next to in some way
And I want it to be endless
Come and join us in this game
We would like to see you write
Beautifully with your heart
Making a friendly poem
RUNNER-UP
Leiden is so old yet pretty
by Gabrielle Dialo (Leiden)
Leiden is so old yet pretty
Tulips and flowers fill the city
Meaningful, with respect for all
A city that stands grand and tall.
Winter brings some chilly weather,
In summer we all play together,
Energy pulses through the street
Where art and history often meet.
On October third, we honor the past
Good souls sacrificed, a memory to last
A fair to celebrate our city's pride
A tradition that will never die.
Leiden, cozy, happy, and free
A city for all, for you and for me
Leiden is a wonderful place
A city full of beauty and grace.
WINNER
Wellwisher
by Isabella Mead
He’s all the things he is expected to be,
this gnome in Oxford’s Covered Market,
from the jaunty tilt of his Phrygian cap
to the crinkled eyes and guileless smile.
He has outsized hands, and is a bit lopsided,
leaning into the face of the sunflower he carries.
Don’t be fooled into thinking this is all he is,
the chubby cheeks, the riff on kitsch;
he is solid bronze and will not break.
The detailed markings in bas-relief
catch the sunlight in a hundred directions,
from the joyously looping incisions for petals,
to the long beard, a rippling course of striations
bursting outwards, as if his face
were another flower. Do not belittle
the bushy eyebrows or vacuous grin. He can see
three hundred brothers in another city,
the little people that populate Wrocław
with seemingly innocuous daily tasks,
cycling or bathing or fixing electrics.
He knows how and why they came to be.
He knows what it took to bring him here.
He knows how he came by his thick sturdy boots,
what is inside the parcel he hides at his foot.
Zyczliwek, ‘Wellwisher’, a bronze gnome, was gifted to Oxford from Wrocław in 2019 as a sign of friendship. There are over 400 bronze gnomes in Wrocław, a reference to the ‘Orange Alternative,’ a 1980s protest movement that used humour to oppose the communist regime, in which people painted gnomes over political propaganda.
RUNNER-UP
WELTANSHAUUNG
by Eleanor Williamson
We liked to joke that we were twins
Because we so obviously were not,
Although our cities were.
First came penpal letters, artistically handwritten.
Then hand-braided friendship bracelets.
Later, ferry tickets for a reciprocal exchange visit.
I packed a suitcase of expectation
And your country did not disappoint.
You showed me Beethoven's birthplace with its green
Shutters and red geranium window boxes.
Historic castles, barges on the Rhine.
At a pavement café we savoured the best schnitzel in town,
Talked philosophy over slender glasses of Pilsner.
Arms linked, we strolled through the Münsterplatz
Feeling stylish.
I took my good camera and returned home
With memories to rival any guidebook.
And what did I show you?
Dreaming spires, ancient gargoyles.
Sacred lawns and sequestered university quadrangles.
The architecture was unmatched, you said,
But in that polite direct way of yours: "Stones don't talk."
You wanted the candid autobiography of the place.
Instead your sketchbook sought out rough sleepers
On city centre pavements.
Pigeons eating chips off a bus station floor.
Drunken lovers arguing in a curry house doorway.
Graffiti on the Kings Arms lavatory walls.
Instead your journal recorded flapping windblown laundry.
The milk float’s whine in the small hours.
Crisp and salad cream sandwiches.
Eating Mr Whippy ice cream in a cagoule in the rain.
You accented the overlooked and uncurated;
The unedited backdrop to everyday life.
The prosaic you made remarkable.
I was welcomed to your country,
Reacquainted with my own.
You had the gift of seeing and you taught me how to look.
You gave me
A world view.
‘Weltanshauung’ is a German expression meaning ‘world view’.
