Zaro Weil lives in an old farm on a little hill in southern France, and her poetry for children has appeared in many anthologies. She has written several books including a book of children’s poetry. Her book Firecrackers, Troika, illustrated by Jo Riddell, can be bought here, and her book, Cherry Moon is available here! Zaro’s website is here.
Unicorn
don’t go
let me ask you
how long you’ve been here
please
no lies
© Zaro Weil
Thank you, Zaro, for this lovely poem!
Another poem from me – the truth about pandas! Filmed in the snow a few years ago!
Andrea Shavick is an experienced UK writer with 27 books published including best-selling children’s picture books, funny children’s poetry and a biography of Roald Dahl that’s still in print around the world after 20 years! Her poetry book, Grandma was Eaten by a Shark can be bought here. For freelance writing/commissions please get in touch via Andrea’s website here.
To save energy
Not to mention trees and ink
I’ll stop writing now
© Andrea Shavick
Thank you for this fun climate truth haiku, Andrea!
Julie started writing poetry four years ago and she just can’t stop! Her poems have appeared in magazines like Spider, Ember Journal and The Caterpillar and Watcher of the Skies, an anthology of space poetry by The Emma Press.
What is Truth?
Truth is the mountains, the sea and the sky.
Truth is the answer when children ask ‘Why?’
Truth is the moment remembered for years.
Truth is the word which can stop or start tears.
Truth is the friendship where time always flies.
Truth is the photograph which never lies.
Truth is the thought that can cut through our fear.
Truth is not always what we want to hear.
.
© Julie Anna Douglas
Trevor Parsons was born in Parsons Green, London, but, disappointingly, was not the son of a parson. After studying dentistry at London University (he decided it was not for him) he had a variety of jobs including being a postman. He has written poetry since his postman days and for the last twenty years has written for children as well. He has had poems in dozens of anthologies and in 2011 had his first children’s collection, Hear Here (illustrated by Lucy Creed) published – available here! He also writes poems for greetings cards. This is his website.
Lying Around
Lying on the beach
lying in the sun
lying on a lounger
lying having fun.
Lying by the water’s edge
lying in the foam
couldn’t go to school that day
lying ill at home.
Lying in department stores
lying, she was caught
lying in a cell before
lying in the court.
Lying to the magistrate
she was nowhere near the crime
lying she was on the beach
lying all the time.
© Trevor Parsons
Thank you for this excellent poem, Trevor!
Michaela Morgan has had over 140 titles published including poetry, picture books, junior novels and non-fiction. She is a regular visitor to schools. Her 2016 poetry book Wonderland: Alice in Poetry, illustrations by Tenniel, was shortlisted for the prestigious CLiPPA Award for poetry and her 2017 collection Reaching the Stars: Poems About Extraordinary Women and Girls co-authored with Jan Dean and Liz Brownlee won the North Somerset Teachers’ Book Award 2017. Her book How To Teach Poetry: Writing Workshops, stresses the importance of poetry across the curriculum.
Here she is with her poem Blake’s Tyger – Revisited.
Neal Zetter is an award-winning children’s author, comedy performance poet and entertainer. Most days Neal is found performing or running fun poetry writing or performance workshops in schools and libraries with children, teens, adults or families. He has worked in all 33 London Boroughs and many, many other UK cities. One of his Troika books for 6-13 year olds includes Yuck & Yum (A Feast of Funny Food Poems) illustrated by Scoular Anderson, with poet Joshua Seigal. More information is here. Neal’s Twitter page is here, and Neal’s Amazon Author page is here.
The dog ate my homework Miss
At breakfast time today
I managed to complete it first
I’m sure I got top grade
He suddenly felt peckish
In one gulp wolfed it down
I can’t hand in my homework
‘Cause I have a hungry hound
The dog ate my homework Miss
He shredded it to bits
Then munched it, crunched it, lunched it
Sent it to the dark abyss
It’s stuck inside his stomach
It nestles in his guts
I can’t hand in my homework
‘Cause my mutt has scoffed it up
The dog ate my homework Miss
I hate to break bad news
Preferred it to his dinner
And his biscuits, treats and chews
I’m begging you believe me
I’m telling you the truth
I can’t hand in my homework
‘Cause my pet’s a piggish pooch
The dog ate my homework Miss
It’s never coming back
My literacy, French, science
Art, geography and maths
He certainly is sorry
I hope you’re fine with that
But think I’d better warn you…
I also own a greedy cat
© Neal Zetter
Thanks for this funny poem, Neal!
Gerard Benson was one very beloved poet and was also a lovely friend to have. He was an actor, poet, raconteur, book reviewer, editor and co-founder of the ‘Poems on the Undergound’ project, former Barrow poet, former teacher at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Sadly he died in 2014, and is much missed.
He was an immensely talented poet – and any poem read in his wonderfully resonant tones was a joy to listen to. Here is one of his poems read by Hannah Evans.
Here is another poem from me. It is blatant lies. But it was fun to write and fun to perform… May 2018, with Eric Ode. It’s called Back to the Future. There’s a little out-takes piece on the end.
This Friday in National poetry week, here is Eric Ode (pronounced Oh-dee), a national award-winning children’s singer/songwriter, an author and widely published poet, and a thoroughly engaging entertainer. His performances include interactive music, stories, skits, poetry, props and puppets. One of his latest books is Sea Star Wishes, Poems from the Coast, illustrated by Erik Brooks, available here in the UK and here in the US. Eric’s website is here.
This is Eric in a video telling the truth about ducks.
The third poem for this National Poetry Day comes from wonderful Pie Corbett – English educational trainer, writer, author, anthologiser and poet, who has written over two hundred books. He is now best known for creating Talk for Writing which is a teaching programme that supports children as storytellers and writers. He has supported children’s writing and children’s poets as well as the education of primary children for many years. His main collection is called Evidence of Dragons, illustrated by Chris Riddell and Peter Bailey, published by Macmillan Children’s Books.
I set out to seek the truth
Not knowing where to look,
I took the lane towards the fields
to see what time might yield…
as the knot grass
caterpillar moth
humps and bumps
along the fence,
resting
for a second
at the wind’s touch;
then undulates
its rhythmic pulse
like a heart monitor;
its lean, stippled body
and soft bristles rippling,
as the whopper swan
flexes its neck, stretches bridal wings,
open as blank pages of frail feathers;
white washing-line sheets take off in a flutter,
skimming the lake with a clatter,
as the orb-weaver spider
tests each thread,
waits at the edge
to scuttle, seize and wrap
any unsuspecting fly
that passes by –
diamond specks of dew
freckle the leaves;
the web clings, glittering,
as kindly morning sun
warms the lane.
Early this morning,
while the sun set out at first light,
I sought the truth.
Not knowing exactly
where to look,
I took Farm Lane
towards the fields
to see where rambling
might take me.
The road ahead glowed,
blackberries polka-dotted hedgerows,
blackbirds broke the silence
and clouds scudded
through sheer blue above.
Truth blossomed with every step,
every stop to stare,
and there I found
that truth
was everywhere
I chose to look.
© Pie Corbett 2019 Photos © Nicola Stables
Thank you Pie Corbett for this fabulous Poem!
It’s National Poetry Day! Hip, hip hooray! This fabulous poem today is from Philip Gross, whose life as a Quaker informs much of what he writes with its special relationship between words and silence. His work includes poetry for adults and for children, thought-provoking fiction for young people, schools opera libretti, radio short stories and plays. His children’s poetry includes The All-Nite Café, illustrated by Claire Fletcher, which won the Signal Award, and Off Road To Everywhere, illustrated by Jonathan Gross, the winner of the CLiPPA (CLPE) poetry award 2011. His latest book, Dark Sky Park (Otter Barry), illustrated by Jesse Hodgson, was nominated for a CLiPPA this year.
White Ones
with small scritchety claws
and pink
shortsighted blink-
ing-in-the-sunlight
eyes that looked raw
as if they’d cried all night…
One morning they were gone.
On holiday,
says Dad. Gone to stay
with their friends
in the pet shop. And so I pretend
I don’t know about the cage door
he left open. I try to ignore
the look on the face of the cat.
It isn’t that
wakes me up in the darkness. No,
it’s the scritch and the scratch
at the bars, those pink-eyed
lies. They’re only little
white ones, oh
but watch them breed and grow.
© Philip Gross (first published in Off Road To Everywhere (Salt, 2009)
Thank you for the fabulous poem, Philip Gross!
Happy National Poetry Day everyone! Here is my National Poetry Day Truth poem, published last month in Be the Change, Poems to Help you Save the World, Macmillan.
When the whole world is deaf
by greed and by choice,
how do you change things
with only your voice?
It’s hard to be noticed,
harder to be heard,
but she stood up and spoke,
could not be deterred.
What made them listen?
What cut through their lies?
Not the pollution
or the fast melting ice,
not the experts or science,
not hunger or flood,
not the extinctions,
our hands red with blood,
it was her steady gaze,
on our planet, alight,
her desperate calm,
her demand, make it right.
It’s what we’ll recall
of her fight for our youth,
her luminous words
her courage, her truth.
© Liz Brownlee
Trevor is a writer and performer of short stories and poems for children and has published lots of other stuff too. His poems are widely published and anthologised. He is also an experienced workshop leader and is well known for his work on creativity and developing the use of ICT in English. His website is here.
A lie
set free
like a fly
where will it settle
where will it go
will it mate
and reproduce
produce maggots
of untruth?
A promise made
Emerging like a butterfly
From its cocoon
Tests it wings
Takes flight
Settles… moves on…
Can it be trusted?
A reminder…
A buzzing fly
banging at the window pane
of your mind
flies off around the room
out of sight, out of mind
And returns
bangs against the pane again
An excuse..
Wriggling
Avoiding the light
A worm
Wanting the haven of deep dark soil
Away from the pecking beaks
Of close questioning
© Trevor Millum
Thank you very much for this great lie poem, Trevor!
Roger Stevens is a National Poetry Day Ambassador, a founding member of the Able Writers scheme and runs the award-winning website www.poetryzone.co.uk for children and teachers. Roger (link to 3 Simple Steps to Perk up your Poems) has published 40 books for children. His book Apes to Zebras – an A to Z of Shape Poems (Bloomsbury), written with Sue Hardy Dawson and Liz Brownlee, won the prestigious NSTB award in 2018. Recent books include I Am a Jigsaw; Puzzling Poems to Baffle your Brain (Bloomsbury 2019) and Moonstruck; an Anthology of Moon Poems (Otter-Barry). This poem is from the Tricky Questions, Talking Points section of the just published Be the Change; Poems About Sustainability (Macmillan) written with Liz Brownlee and Matt Goodfellow.
.
Some people say
drinking cow’s milk is bad
For one thing
cows expel huge volumes
of greenhouse gasses
which contribute
to global warming
They say
Drink almond milk.
Almonds are good for you.
And they are.
Very good for you.
But it turns out
that nearly all the world’s almonds
are grown in California*
where there are often droughts
And did you know that
in California
it takes
six thousand litres of water
to produce one litre of almond milk?
That’s BONKERS!
And farmers are ripping up
healthy citrus groves
to meet the rising demand
for almond milk.
Oatmilk seems to be a better alternative
But the whole point is this.
Don’t always accept
what you read on a label.
or what people tell you.
Don’t always believe what you read
in the papers
or see on TV
or on the internet
If you really want to help
Just dig a little deeper
Try and get to the truth
*around 80%
.
© Roger Stevens
.
Thank you for the poem, Roger!
