T is for Children’s Poet Nick Toczek, #AtoZChallenge #ZtoA

© Gaynor Toczek

Nick Toczek

Nick Toczek is a British writer and performer who has had more than forty books and dozens of recording published. As well as being a poet, he’s a rock journalist (for the magazine RnR), a radio broadcaster with his own week show (on BCB Radio), a professional magician and puppeteer, and an authority on the activities of racist groups in the UK and in America. To find our more about him, check out his Wikipedia page here and his Authors Abroad page here. His own brand new website is currently under construction and should be fully active by summer 2018. (I will add it then!)

.

Here is one of his great poems:

.

WINTER AT THE ZOO

 

When round the zoo it starts to freeze

The chimpanzees’ll hug their knees

While monkeys, donkeys, fish and fleas

And marmosets and manatees,

Brown bears, baboons and bumble bees

And other breeds of beasts like these

Bronchitically sneeze and wheeze

From cough, cold, flu or such disease.

 

But we don’t, we don’t, we don’t care

Says penguin to the polar bear.

 

And round and round and round and round

The neck of every tall giraffe

Is wound and wound and wound and wound

An oh-so-lengthy woollen scarf.

And each bird hunching in its nest,

Beak thrust between its wing and chest,

Stays warm by being doubly dressed

In plumage plus a thermal vest.

 

But we don’t, we don’t, we don’t care

Says penguin to the polar bear.

 

The stags and stallions and stoats

Start wrapping snakes around their throats,

While gibbons, guppies, geese and goats

Wear gabardines and overcoats,

And all the cats and bats and rats

And fat wombats and tall meerkats

To keep warm leap like acrobats

While wearing socks and gloves and hats.

 

But we don’t, we don’t, we don’t care

Says penguin to the polar bear.

 

The snow lies thick on distant hills.

Ice forms on pools and window-sills.

There’s frost on fencing, bars and grills.

Now no ker-chinging fills the tills,

No visitors to pay the bills.

The heat’s turned down. The whole place chills.

No hoots or howls or growls or trills.

A silence falls that saps all wills.

 

But we don’t, we don’t, we don’t care

Says penguin to the polar bear.

.

© Nick Toczek

Click on the title of the post if you are on the home page, to be taken to the post’s page where you will be able to comment. Thank you!

You can hear more about children’s poets and poetry, if you follow The Children’s Poetry Summit, @kidspoetsummit on Twitter