World In Slumber Poem by Jayatissa K. Liyanage

Having seen the best picture of the year in 1994 by Kavin Carter of the Starving child and the vulture in Sudan during Sudan's famine in 1994, through internet, I could not stop pouring out tears from my eyes. When I displayed this picture on the notice board in my office a friend of mine noted it and asked for a copy of the same insisting me to write something about it. Until this day I had never attempted to write poems in English, but my friend's insistence made me to make a try, and this was the result of the trial. My son sent it later to The International Library of Poetry for a competition and was finally selected to the finalist list. Before the last day of the month authorities wanted my signature for the poem and relevant documents had been posted to my personal address. Unfortunately, I received it only after passing the dead line and as a result I was denied of the chance of winning a prize. However, I have a particular affection to this poem, simply for the fact that it was my first ever poem in English and it is also published in their “Collected Whispers”, Anthology of The International Library of Poetry (poetry.com) , in 2008