I’m sharing animals from around the world for World Poetry Day today – here is the white-bellied heron, once widespread in the foothills of the Himalayas in Bhutan and NE India, in the hills of Bangladesh and north Myanmar, now confined just a few sites. Illustration by the wonderful Rose Sanderson, from my book, Animal Magic, Poems on a Disappearing World, IRON Press.
I’m posting world animals for #worldpoetryday – here’s a very odd-looking animal from Central and South America!
Here’s another world animal for #WorldPoetryDay – this time from Madagascar!
This poem and illustration is in Animal Magic, IRON Press!
I’ve been sharing world animal poems on World Poetry Day – here are some snow petrels, from Antarctica!
Next we are in Australia! Here is a new poem about a koala – this poem has been made into a shape poem, but these are the words!
It is world poetry day – the day on which everyone should read at least one poem – and maybe share one, too!
I’m to be sharing a few world animal poems to celebrate the variety and wonder of the wildlife on planet earth in poetry.
First of all – Africa!
It’s World Poetry Day! What a fabulous thing as the day turns round the world to know that thousands and thousands of people will be Tweeting, blogging, reading, writing and trying poetic words on their palate!
Poetry has been said to be like Marmite, you either love it or you hate it. But most people turn to poetry on occasions of emotional highs and lows, to express those thoughts with words that are hard to find at those times.
Here’s my fun marmite poem to celebrate the fact that we are all different, but all have a place, on World Poetry Day, and any other day.
.
My Mite
.
I like my mite,
my mite’s my mate,
it gets my vote
and not my hate,
I like my mite,
but others won’t,
you either like it
or you don’t.
.
© Liz Brownlee
.
Mites help decompose leaf litter in the woods. Without decomposers to break down all the dead material such as leaves, twigs, animal bodies, and waste materials that animals produce (poo!), there would be no soil. Without soil, nothing would grow. We would starve as there would be nothing to grow our food in, there would be no grass-eating creatures such as cattle, there would be no birds or anything that lives in trees because there would be nothing for trees to live in and no trees, no insects, no flowers… in fact the whole web of life would break down. Decomposers are creatures like bacteria, mites, earwigs, beetles, slugs, wasps, flies, and very importantly, worms.
Image by Heidi Elliot on Flikr by CC License.
Happy World Poetry Day!
To celebrate, here is a video of Poets are Everywhere, featuring poets Liz Brownlee, the late and wonderful Gerard Benson, Catherine Benson, Jane Clarke, Sue Hardy-Dawson, Andrea Shavick, Roger Stevens, and Philip Waddell. Written by the poets, with extra verses by Jan Dean, Michaela Morgan and Graham Denton. Filmed on location in Bristol, thanks to Blackwell’s Bookshop and Bristol City Museum.
Poetry Roundabout 