Joshua Seigal's Blog
Professional children's performance poet! MA in Writing/Education and residencies at various schools. Books published by Bloomsbury. Blogging my poetry, students' work, and miscellanea. Blog posts not always child friendly.
Tuesday, 24 January 2023
Amazing poems from Year 6, Great Paxton Primary School
Monday, 23 January 2023
THE BALLAD OF NADHIM ZAHAWI
There was a bald man named Nadhim
Whose wallet was full to the brim.
It wasn’t enough
He craved more of the stuff
But his taxes were looking quite grim.
“I know of a place in Gibraltar”
He uttered with never a falter.
He hoarded his cash
In a big hidden stash
As he bowed down at capital’s altar.
The taxman, he came and said “Oi!
I think that I know of your ploy!
You owe us a lot
So fork out what you’ve got –
We know that you’ve been a bad boy!”
Zahawi, he said he’d lacked care
But of wrongs he was quite unaware.
“I’m rich, with connections
So stop your objections.”
He opened his purse and said “There!”
So Zahawi will doubtless go free.
He’s posh and important you see.
The things that he does
Are permitted because
He is different to you and to me.
[important Tory Nadhim Zahawi plays fast and loose with his tax and there's nothing you or anyone else can do about it, OK?]
Thursday, 12 January 2023
HOME
You can decorate the walls
and you can plump up the settee;
you can go into the yard
and cultivate an apple tree;
You can polish all the china;
you can lay a welcome mat,
but a home is not a home
without an itty kitty cat.
You can have a massive telly
and hang pictures left and right;
put keepsakes on the mantelpiece
in dappled candlelight;
you can hammer in a nail
for a place to hang your hat,
but a home is not a home
without an itty kitty cat.
You can get a fancy mansion
in a beautiful location;
procure a cosy cottage
with no semblance of privation;
you can buy a barge, or caravan,
but here’s the caveat;
a home is not a home
without an
itty
kitty
CAT!
(And a kitty can live
wherever you choose,
but will always prefer
to live in a mews…)
Monday, 9 January 2023
Two fantastic poems from Markeaton Primary School, Derbyshire
Wednesday, 4 January 2023
Some Thoughts on Marriage and Compatibility
Thursday, 22 December 2022
Direct Instruction
This is a poem about a tree.
It’s about a tree in winter,
with all its branches bereft of leaves.
The tree represents the poet’s family
(family tree – clever, right?)
and the fact the leaves are gone
represents the fact the poet’s family
has somehow disintegrated.
In the poem, the poet
is standing and looking at the tree
from a distance. That distance
represents the distance
the poet feels from his family.
The sky overhead is dark
which represents the poet’s mood.
But! A dove comes to perch
on one of the branches! The dove,
of course, represents peace.
The poet is at peace.
Or the poet’s family.
(See how ambiguity is key!)
The poem doesn’t rhyme,
which of course represents
the disordered state of the poet’s mind.
Not like yours, one hopes.
You have thirty minutes.
Begin.
Tuesday, 20 December 2022
So I had that dream again,
the one where you’re not there.
You’ve called the wedding off, or perhaps
it was never on to start with. Either way
I’m staring at the ring on my finger
and choking on your absence.
I’m looking you up online and when
I find out you’ve got another partner
I want to puke. Or perhaps we’re at
a party or something, but all I can see
is the back of your head and the way
you’ve pinned your hair, the way
you know I love. Then I heave so hard
I wake myself up. Morning begins
to brush the room, and the heap beside me
is you. And please believe me what I say
I’m thankful for it all – those whispers
in my ear telling me what I have,
what I hold, and what I stand to lose.