I’ve been having such fun trying to think of ways of animating the animals in my shape poems. I love puffins, we are so lucky to have them in the UK! I hope you enjoy the animation.
Children’s Mental Health Week: Nightingale
Today I’m posting a shape poem from Being Me, Poems about Thoughts, Worries and Feelings. The nightingale is a bird that does things a little bit differently, and that is what we love him for!
If you would like to find ways of chatting to your children about their worries, feelings etc, then why not get a copy of Being Me – the first poetry book of its type. Send me an email at poetliz @ mac. com with your address and if you would like a dedication, let me know who to dedicate it to!
Being Me, Poems about Thoughts, Worries and Feelings, + p&p UK
A unique and wonderfully illustrated book of poems supporting wellbeing in primary children – perfect to help parents and teachers discuss sensitive topics. Signed by me – if you would like a dedication, please let me know what you would like!
£10.00
Children’s Mental Health Week: What to do with Worries!
Being Me is the first Children’s poetry book to address mental wellbeing in primary school children.
With advice from leading developmental psychologist Karen Goodall, the book is full of poems offering support, understanding and acknowledgement of many issues encountered by growing children. Full of comfort and kindness the book aims to give children a voice and vocabulary to express themselves and get those thoughts out in the open!
Being Me was shortlisted for the prestigious CLiPPA in 2022, was written by me, Matt Goodfellow and Laura Mucha, and is illustrated sensitively by Victoria Jane Wheeler.
Here is a video of Sophia reading What to do with Worries!
If you would like to open discussions with your young people, whether you are a teacher or a parent, and help them express themselves, perhaps you’d like to own a copy of Being Me!
Please send me an email at poetliz @ mac. com (with no spaces!), and let me know your address, and if you would like it dedicated, to whom.
Being Me, Poems about Thoughts, Worries and Feelings + p&p UK
A unique and wonderfully illustrated book of poems supporting wellbeing in primary children – perfect to help parents and teachers discuss sensitive topics. Signed by me – if you would like a dedication, please let me know what you would like!
£10.00
Children’s Mental Health Week: Find Me, an animated poem
Being Me is full of poems confronting issues many children struggle with – reading and listening to these poems gives children the ability to express their own thoughts, feelings and worries.
If you are a teacher, and you register (free), then you can get a free comprehensive teaching sequence on this book from the Centre for Learning in Primary Education (CLPE).
Perhaps you would like to buy a signed copy of the book? Buy it below, then send me an email saying to whom you would like it dedicated. Don’t forget to include your address!
Being Me, Poems about Thoughts Feelings and Worries, + p&p UK
A unique and wonderfully illustrated book of poems supporting wellbeing in primary children – perfect to help parents and teachers discuss sensitive topics.
£10.00
Children’s Mental Health Week – Kindness
This is a sample poem from Being Me, by me, Matt Goodfellow and Laura Mucha, illustrated by Victoria Jane Wheeler.
Being Me is full of comforting poems to give children a voice so they can express their own thoughts, feelings and worries.
If you are a teacher, and you register (free), then you can get a free comprehensive teaching sequence on this book from the Centre for Learning in Primary Education (CLPE).
You can buy a signed copy here!
Being Me, Poems about Thoughts Worries and Feelings, + p&p
A unique and wonderfully illustrated book of poems supporting wellbeing in primary children – perfect to help parents and teachers discuss sensitive topics.
£10.00
This week is Children’s Mental Health Week!
Children’s Mental Health Week is the 13th-19th of May, 2024.
Being Me is the first Children’s poetry book to address mental wellbeing in primary school children. With advice from leading developmental psychologist Karen Goodall, the book is full of poems offering support, understanding and acknowledgement of many issues encountered by growing children – all kinds of worries and thoughts around sadness, inner critics, family dynamics, friendships, bullying, differences etc. Full of comfort and kindness the book aims to give children a voice and vocabulary to express themselves and get those thoughts out in the open!
Being Me was shortlisted for the prestigious CLiPPA in 2022, was written by me, Matt Goodfellow and Laura Mucha, and is illustrated sensitively by Victoria Jane Wheeler.
You can buy a signed copy here! Please email me at poetliz @ mac. com to let me know if you would like a dedication, and if so what, plus let me know your address. Thank you.
Being Me, Poems about Thoughts Worries and Feelings, plus p&p
A unique and wonderfully illustrated book of poems supporting wellbeing in primary children – perfect to help parents and teachers discuss sensitive topics. Signed by me – if you would like a dedication, please let me know what you would like!
£10.00
Animal Poem Videos – Pelican, by Celia Warren
Hello viewers! I’m going to be posting a series of poetry videos made by me and my film editor husband. The videos will be on a variety of subjects, and the first one is the marvellous Celia Warren and her pelican poem.
If you like animal poems, you might like the animal shaped poems in my book, Apes to Zebras, and A-Z of shape poems! You can buy one below, and get it, signed by me! Send an email to poetliz @ mac. com to let me know who you would like it signed to and include your address.
Apes to Zebras, large hardback, signed
An A-Z of animal poems in the shape of the animal. Printed in two colours. Normally 14:99.
£14.00
Merry Christmas!
On YouTube today I found this lovely reading of my poem Snow Petrels by Emily. She is reading from the gorgeous anthology, Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright, selected by Fiona Waters, illustrated by Britta Teckentrup, published by Nosy Crow. Beautifully read Emily, I’m proud to share it here!
And I Climbed And I Climbed and I Climbed by Stephen Lightbown: Poetry Review
This book is a series of poems written by Cosmo, a young boy, after he climbs a tree, falls and breaks his back.
It’s a journey though his ‘afterlife’ if you will – the shock and grief at the loss of what makes up childhood for him, and the deeper loss of who he felt himself to be, now part of his identity is a wheelchair. It’s hard to lose yourself in life when every aspect of your life comes back to – is it possible in a wheelchair?
But this is in no way a sad book of poems – although it’s an exploration in Cosmo’s beautifully written voice of coming to terms, which doesn’t shy away from addressing frustration, jealousy, or anger – it is full of humour, verisimilitude, and hope.
Cosmo finds ways other ways to climb – and steps metaphorically into his new way of life where he discovers exciting abilities, alternative ambitions, and new dreams, finally coming to the realisation that although he is in a wheelchair – he is still Cosmo.
I really enjoyed the truth of these poems – some things struck a note with me, for instance, the reliance on other people, something I have struggled with. The occasional poems from other members of his family and even the tree he climbed, look at other aspects of the journey and feelings from other points of view.
This is absolutely a book everyone and certainly every child should read, and they will certainly enjoy it! Lots to talk about and there are many discussion springboards for use in school, and with children who have suffered a life-changing incident in their lives.
5 Stars. Great Christmas present!
National Poetry Day: A Refuge Poem by Me
This one is by me - you can find it in The Same Inside, Poems about Empathy and Friendship. Refugee After the bombing and all are lost and gone I walk I can carry only my father’s pride my mother’s longing my brother’s blood my sister’s hope and my dreams but my father’s pride cannot be carried as a refugee so I lay it down and walk when I sleep my mother’s longing is too painful to hold so I lay it down and walk in time my shoes fall off my feet and I leave my brother’s blood and my own on the road as if it is worthless and I walk the road is long I sleep so little I cannot remember my dreams so I lay them down and I walk I can carry only what is in my heart my sister’s hope © Liz Brownlee
National Poetry Day: A Refuge Poem by Michaela Morgan
Here’s a poignant poem – thank you Michaela.
Names
Drifting in from faraway. Dreaming of land.
We appear, uninvited.
We startle with our upturned faces, our colours, our odd names -
Clinging Ivy. Sweetheart. Bindweed. Bay. And Dock.
Oxeye. Bluebell. Hollyhock.
Poppy.Daisy. Buttercup.
Without permission we pop up.
Searching for home on stony ground.
Find refuge, put down roots, start to settle…
but the trimmers and the strimmers are set to search us out.
We fear the boots that shake the ground. We hear a mutter and a shout -
‘You’re taking up our valued space. You can’t stay.
Go away. Jog on. Be gone.
but … Clinging Ivy. Sweetheart. Bindweed. Bay. And Dock.
Oxeye. Bluebell. Hollyhock.
Poppy. Daisy. Buttercup. Without permission we pop up.
Healing and feeding, we’ll enrich this earth.
Borne here on dreams and clouds of seeds
We settle where we can.
They call us names.
They call us weeds.
© Michaela Morgan
National Poetry Day: A Refuge Poem by Chrissie Gittins
Here is a lovely poem by Chrissie Gittins – thank you, Chrissie!
The Rare Boy There was a rare blue-eyed boy who travelled through the air, he landed in a terraced house, he made this house his lair. At first he kept his eyes closed, his arms tight by his side, it wasn’t until November that he opened his eyes wide. What he saw was sunlight, a cat which swayed its tail, food served up on a table, a bath where he could sail. He stepped outside the front door and watched the falling snow, each snowflake kept a secret, each one he’d come to know. The secrets of the Christmas Tree, the secrets of lemon tart, the secrets in his fingers, and the secrets of his heart. © Chrissie Gittins
National Poetry Day: A Refuge Poem by Mark Bird
This poem has been written by Mark Bird – thank you, Mark!
Sound Sanctuary (Ode to Music) Your beats, your raps Your clicks, your claps Your rock, your roll Your blues, your soul Your jazz, your funk Your ska, your punk Your hip, your hop Your lift, your drop Your sharps, your flats Your songs, your scats Your beat, your drum Your pluck, your strum Your sway, your swing Your synths, your strings Your chords, your notes Your words, your quotes Your scales, your keys Your Do-Re-Mis … Have helped me cry, Wonder, fly hide, escape play, reshape lose you, grieve heal, believe fear, scream imagine, dream stand up, fight remember, write Without your sounds of sanctuary where would I go? who would I be? © Mark Bird
National Poetry Day: A Refuge Poem by Sarah Ziman
A building refuge poem from Sarah Ziman – thank you Sarah!
Lego Club Wednesday lunchtimes, year 7. It wasn’t exactly super cool, I knew that. Not like juniors’ football, or Mr Bowen’s new ‘Throwing Thursdays’, where the boys I’d not have trusted with a sharpened pencil, let alone heavy artillery, were let loose with javelin and shot put up in the top field. But Mrs Green had seen me on my own, trying to walk with purpose, not really knowing anyone else yet, a piece which didn’t quite fit, and there was a warm and welcoming light coming through her classroom door. So I figured, might as well. Some of the bricks had dried-out crusty plasticine stuffed in the holes, there was a definite shortage of ‘twos’ and most minifigures didn’t even have a face, but the custard creams were plentiful and the soft rattle as we sifted through the tubs let me relax the first time that week. I came back the next, to finish off my supervillain gaol and Gethin and Amayah helped me out. Amayah’s treehouse was AMAZING, to be fair. We’re running it these days, us three. Took over from Mrs G when we did our Bronze D of E, and never quit. It’s not for everyone, but we’ve built up quite a crew – it’s great to have a place to just be you. © Sarah Ziman
National Poetry Day: A Refuge Poem by Shauna Darling Robertson
This poem is by Shauna Darling Robertson, from her book Saturdays at the Imaginarium (Troika, 2020). You can choose to watch and listen to her read it or read the poem below the video!
Dark, My Friend Darkness came and wrapped its gentle arms around me, smoothed away the worry lines that marred my brow, soothed away the great and smaller troubles of the day. Dark, my friend, I’m feeling lighter now. © Shauna Darling Robertson
Poetry Roundabout 