Poetry

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I have always loved writing poetry - a poem I wrote as a child has been included in a Macmillan Christmas anthology, and I published poems before I started writing stories. My poems have appeared in anthologies for publishers including Bloomsbury, Candlestick Press, Macmillan, Scholastic, Collins Children's Books, Oxford University Press and A&C Black.

I have also written poems for Pearson educational publishers.

My mini e-books One Week of Christmas Poems, One Week of Dinosaur Poems One week of Garden poems, One Week of Space Poems, One Week of Football Poems and One Week of Spooky Poems are available on Amazon Kindle. They are gathered together in the One Week of Poems Box Set.

Here are a couple of poems. I will change them every now and then so come back to see what's new.

DINOSAUR SCHOOL

What do dinosaurs learn at carnivore school?
How to swagger and strut, how to cruise and be cool.
They learn gnashing and gashing and gnawing and clawing,
And lashing and dashing and roaring and warring,
And tearing and scaring and ripping and gripping,
And daring and glaring and nipping and flipping,
And chasing and racing and pacing and pulping,
And looming and booming and zooming and gulping,
And stomping and chomping, alarming and harming,
And stamping and champing, attack and disarming.

But at herbivore school what to dinosaurs do?
They learn how to chew,
And to chew,
And to chew.

WAITING FOR MY EGGS TO HATCH

Waiting for my eggs to hatch
I worry about silly things,
Like how my croaky voice will cope
With teaching baby birds to sing.

And will this nest be warm enough,
So early in the chilly spring?
Perhaps I ought to find some extra
Cosy moss to tuck them in.

A hundred times a day I check
How thoroughly my nest is fixed.
I test the branch. I tweak the twigs.
I rearrange the grass and sticks.

I make a long list in my head
Of fledgling things that I must buy -
Something to mash up bits of worm,
A parachute to help them fly.

Perhaps some fireflies hung on strings
Would comfort them when it gets dark?
And maybe I could make some toys
From seeds and twigs and bits of bark?

Yes, waiting for my eggs to hatch,
My thoughts do whirl around a bit,
But in the end, what do I do?
Just sit, and sit, and sit, and sit.

In a perfect sunny spot.

It is bursting full of treasures
Of incalculable worth.
It’s the superstar of planets,
Living, breathing Planet Earth!

If you really want to have it
You must promise to take care,
For we haven’t found another
Planet like it anywhere.

Pop it gently in your trolley,
Don’t forget its little moon,
And I’m sure you’ll be delighted
With your purchase.
Come back soon!”