I am starting a new weblog on writing poetry in collaboration with children.
Visit it here:
Visit it here:
I have been helping children write poetry for many years, often based around my book of fairy tales, Telling It Like It Is, but I think it is the right time to start sharing some of that with the world. I want to share a poem here first, on an established blog, just to attract a little interest.
This poem is a collaboration with a nine year old student of mine called Tom Walters.
Tom likes poetry but dislikes prose and I have been recruited to teach him just poetry. From the start we have worked on creating poems on anything that catches his imagination. In this case he photographed a swan during a "poetry and pictures walk" on the nearby Thames and researched swans before writing the poem together.
 |
| Nick Owen photography |
 |
| Nick Owen photography |
The Swan
Look at the swan
He won’t be gone
He’s only busking.
The swan is lifting up his
wings
Immense and white and
powerful things
Above the water feathers
sweep
Enough to make the fearful
weep.
For when these wings begin to
flap
He really is a scary chap
These dreadful wings make
such a threat
And does it scare me? Yes.
You bet.
He does this busking every
day
So nothing bad can come his
way
He isn’t bothered by a boat
He hates some other things
that float.
And fish and birds, and you
and me
He hates them all, most
things he sees
His long and pointy orange
beak
Is like a snowy mountain
peak.
Although we cannot see his
feet
They are still going, beat,
beat, beat
But if the breating was to
stop
The swan would shout
“Oh. Fizzle Pop.”
Look at the swan
He won’t be gone
He’s just a'busking.
