Posted in Global Climate Action Day

Global Climate Action

 

Today Friday 20 September, Global Climate Action Day. I choose to share this poem, scheduled yesterday, as today I am in Bristol marching with our young people to protest the inaction of our government and global governments on the climate crisis.

 

Things We Cannot Keep

 

The softness of the lemon in a primrose

the nodding of the bluebell from a bee

the silence in the gaps of the bird’s song

the library of the creatures in a tree

the plumping of a plum in the sunshine

the crazy path an ant left in the grass

the warmth of a hug and its safety

the moment when the sky darks for the stars

the blink of a bat through the dusk light

the leaves shown in moon breath from above

the heart of iced water in the arctic

the diverse beauty of the planet that we love

 

© Liz Brownlee

 

Posted in A to Z Challenge 2019

X is for XXX by Colin West

Colin West studied Graphic Design and Illustration at various art colleges. His first book, a slim volume of nonsense verse, Out of the Blue from Nowhere, was published by Dennis Dobson in 1976 – I am the proud owner of one of these! He went on to write and illustrate some sixty children’s books, some of which were favourites with my children, and now lives in Sussex and writes and draws for his own amusement, mainly.

However, he has published two rather wonderful recent collections The Funniest Stuff and Bonkers Ballads, both of which are stuffed with Colin’s delightfully witty poems and charming, colour illustrations.

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Here is the fun poem and wonderful illustration Colin sent for the poetry feast:

 

XXX

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© Colin West

If you’d like to blog hop to another A-Z Challenge, then follow this link.

Children’s Poets’ Climate Change Blog: Be the Change

Liz’s Blog: Liz Brownlee Poet

Liz’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lizpoet

KidsPoets4Climate Twitter: https://twitter.com/poets4climate

Children’s Poetry Summit Twitter: https://twitter.com/kidspoetsummit

Posted in A to Z Challenge 2019

AtoZ Challenge; P is for Pie Corbett

Letter P in the Feast of Poems is fulfilled by Pie Corbett (link to Pie’s article on here about reading poetry in school). Pie is an inspirational 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. Pie’s excellent and very popular main collection is called Evidence of Dragons, illustrated by Chris Riddell and Peter Bailey, published by Macmillan Children’s Books.

Here is his lovely poem:

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In the City

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In the city of snow,
The silence smothered the citadel.

In the city of suffering,
A poor man became the author of statistics.

In the city of saxophones,
A silhouette of sound insinuated itself.

In the city of scales,
A piano played for justice.

In the city of scholars,
They taught the science of beauty.

In the city of serendipity,
A startled key stumbled across a frozen lock.

In the city of sarcasm,
Stern words sliced chasms of pain.

In the city of silences,
The soft-hearted were squashed.

In the city of sunsets,
A song stood still.

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© Pie Corbett

 

If you would like to blog hop to another AtoZ challenge, here is a link.

Children’s Poets’ Climate Change blog: Be the Change

Liz’s Blog: Liz Brownlee Poet

Liz’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lizpoet

KidsPoets4Climate Twitter: https://twitter.com/poets4climate

Children’s Poetry Summit Twitter: https://twitter.com/kidspoetsummit

Posted in A to Z Challenge 2019

#AtoZChallenge; M is for Michaela Morgan

And who else could it be, with such a perfect name other than award-winning poet Michaela Morgan? Michaela 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 is the poem Michaela has chosen, from Reaching the Stars.

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Tinker… Tailor

 

I could be a lawyer, a doctor, a teacher, a vet.

I could be a mother, an artist, or the pilot of a jet.

I could be the one who speaks up for a revolution

Or a steady force for status, calm, order, institution.

I could be a strutting model or a structural engineer

Or I could march in uniform to fight foe, or fire, or fear.

I could be a juggler… a jeweller…

What could be my scene?

Whatever it is, I choose to be

A fully fledged human being.

 

© Michaela Morgan

 

If you would like to blog hop to another AtoZ Challenge please follow this link.

Children’s Poets’ Climate Change blog: Be the Change

Liz’s Blog: Liz Brownlee Poet

Liz’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lizpoet

KidsPoets4Climate Twitter: https://twitter.com/poets4climate

Children’s Poetry Summit Twitter: https://twitter.com/kidspoetsummit

Posted in World Poetry Day

World Poetry Day!

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.

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My Mite

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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.

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© Liz Brownlee

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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.

Last Week to Enter Never Such Innocence Poetry (and art and songs) Competition

Never Such Innocence want to encourage young people to engage with their shared history and heritage, and create their own cultural and artistic legacy to mark the centenary of the First World War.

Together: A UK-German Centenary Project

During this final year of the centenary they are embarking on a youth-centred UK-German creative arts project, inviting schools and educational groups to participate in their project, Together, which provides the opportunity for young people aged 9-16 from the UK and Germany to work in partnership, or independently, to produce poetry, art or songs that are inspired by our shared history: inviting the custodians of the future to draw on the events of the First World War and create messages of hope and unity.

Details here: Never Such Innocence