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. Viewing on mobile device can obscure intended layout of poems.
Tuesday 31 January 2017
Thursday 26 January 2017
ALTERNATIVE FACTS
This is not a punch
It’s an alt-kiss
This is not a gun
It’s an
alt-flower
This is
not shrapnel
It’s
alt-glitter
This is
not fire
It’s an
alt-rainbow
This is not war
It's alt-peace
It's alt-peace
This is
not death
It’s
alt-life
This is
not a poem
It’s an
alt-revolution
Friday 20 January 2017
MAPLIN MAN
In a
world of commotions, emotions and feelings,
and other
such things that can leave a man reeling,
a bloke
likes to hope for some comfort and healing –
a space
to relax and unwind.
A place
to be safe from life’s ripples and eddies,
a place
that is faithful and constant and steady,
a place
where the pace isn’t hectic or heady –
a place
where you know what you’ll find...
SO COME
TO MAPLIN!
Come
sup at our table!
You know
where you are with a USB cable!
A lithium
battery won’t ever leave you!
A socket
adapter won’t cheat or deceive you!
YES COME
TO MAPLIN!
Rejoice
in our manor!
Forget your
divorce with a printer and scanner!
Your daughter’s
gone missing? Well, over you trundle –
come
blow all your woes on our motherboard bundle.
In here
there’s no tricksters or Machiavellis,
Just PC
components and oversized tellies,
and dual format soundbars, yes come fill your wellies
and pray
at our altar of light.
Our trained
Maplin chaplains, they know how to guide you.
So you have been let down and you have been lied to?
A broadband
extender flex will not deride you -
in Maplin
your future is bright.
YES COME
TO MAPLIN!
Be part
of our union!
Kneel down
in the pew of electric communion!
Your dad’s
had a stroke and your mum broke her hip?
Throw pain
down the drain with an LED strip.
OH COME
TO MAPLIN!
Be king
of the castle!
Come dress
all your stress in predictable parcels.
Come flatten
your feelings with MP3 players
at your best-loved high street electrics purveyors.
At MAPLIN
you’re cushty, you’re cuddled, you’re cared for,
so come
get some hand tools and fill up your man drawer.
With Vodafone dongles you won't have a tiff.
A Behringer microphone's never not stiff.
At MAPLIN
you’re safe now, the world’s in a lull.
A monitor
won’t call you ‘nerdy’ or ‘dull’.
A portable
speaker won’t steal your wife.
So come down to MAPLIN
and
feast
on your
life.
Wednesday 18 January 2017
Poems About Social Media by My Students
Grown ups are very fond of moaning about how young people today allegedly 'have it easy'. I don't agree. I think the lives of young people today are much more challenging than they were when I was at school. Back in my day, if you were bullied you could at least go home and shut the door. If you fancied someone who didn't fancy you back you could go and hang out with other people, and forget about it. Nowadays we are all so perennially 'connected' that such things are not possible. Social media is a 24/7 business. I delight in ignoring most of it now, but I dread to think of the toll it would have taken on my mental health had the likes of Snapchat and Whatsapp, and even Facebook, been available when I was at school. With this in mind, the students at my weekly lunch club wrote poems based on their perceptions of social media. Some of them were a bit weird, but they all contained interesting and astonishingly poetic observations.
Social Media by Safiyah
Social
media is where you can stalk
all the
Youtubers.
Social media
is where you can upload
whatever
you want:
pictures,
videos, comments.
Social media
is where you can talk
to your
friends and family.
Social media
is where you get bullied,
from the
mean comments
to the
rude edits on photos.
Social media
is my life.
My everything.
Talk by
Taniya
I’d give
my target away
I’d even
give you my gravity today
Just talk
to me okay?
You never
talk to me
And you
never even face me
Your eye
is on the diamond
But let
me be your silver lining
Don’t
just text
Or you’ll
be gone from me in a second
You never
come when you’re needed
So I ask
you one thing…
Let me be
your phone
So you’ll
never leave me alone.
Media by
Sathana
The earth
The eye
The world
The seasons
Me
You
Why
When
How
Who
What
Where
I
Can’t
Cope
Anything
Living
Dying
Nope
Both aren’t
Options
Media
Manipulation
And finally,
Propaganda
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