POEM FOR PERIVALE PRIMARY SCHOOL

When I visit schools, I am sometimes asked to write a bespoke poem, on a theme of the school's choosing. I love doing this! Here is a special poem written for the fantastic Perivale Primary School, whom I am visiting on Friday 28th April. I was asked to write them a poem centred around their core school values of respect, resilience, enjoyment, kindness and excellence, and this is my effort. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

THIS IS US

Warming smiles on Monday mornings

Classrooms filled with dedication

Doors opening into worlds of colour 

Pens poised in eager hands

Arms linked tightly across the playground

A kaleidoscope of swirling inspiration

A tissue to the eye when the tears flow

A tender word in a tired ear

A scuffed shoe ready to run again

Bubbling brews of heady potential 

A flag standing proudly in shifting sands

Differences united in diversity 

Respect

Resilience

Enjoyment

Kindness

Excellence

We will prevail entirely

We are Perivale Primary

POEM FOR BORIS

BODIES

Social distance

Quarantine

Clap for Carers

New vaccine

Hands and faces

All kept clean…

Bodies piled high. 

Furloughted workers

PPE

SAGE and

Herd Immunity

It’s a new

Normality…

Bodies piled high.

Barnard Castle

Isolation

Ventilators

Intubation

Cronyism

Ravaged nation…

Bodies piled high.

NEW POEM: 'THAT DOG'

That Dog

skulks away and cowers

in his corner. Trembling, there is nothing

we can do to coax him out. 

For some reason he’s scared.

He’s scared and we don’t know why.

There’s nothing we can do to tell him

that there’s nothing to be scared of.

We don’t speak his language.

What if we all are dogs like him,

huddled up in the corners of our lives?

What if the things we shrink from are akin

to whatever it is the dog fears?

So let us turn upwards, to the still

space above that holds us tight, tickles

behind our ears and if it could would tell

us we’re good, we’re loved, that everything

is all right.

POEM FOR EARTH DAY 2021

Earth Day is on the 22nd April. The poem below was written in anticipation of this, and I was up until recently excited to share it with you all. I shared it in a group on Facebook yesterday, where it was generally well received. However, one of the group members drew my attention to the fact that the poem is extremely similar to one written by Roger McGough, which you can read here. I genuinely do not remember reading this poem before writing my own, but I am obviously struck by the similarity. So struck, in fact, that I can only conclude that I must have read McGough's poem at some point in the past, and I must have thus imbibed it in some kind of subliminal way. Anyway, with this preamble out of the way, here is my poem for Earth Day 2021. I hope you will agree that I have at least done an OK job of taking McGough's original idea and taking it in my own direction.

FOOTBALL?

It’s football   but not as we know it

It’s football   crack out that champagne!

It’s football   embroidered in gold leaf 

It’s football   that’s gone down the drain 

It’s football   reduced to a boardroom

It’s football   without all the zing

It’s football   with added prawn sandwich

It’s football   but don’t mean a thing

It’s football   with no relegation

It’s football   but shorn of the pain

It’s football   with nothing to lose, so

It’s football   with nothing to gain 

It’s football   except that it’s worthless

It’s football   except that it’s crap 

It’s football   without the tradition

It’s football   watch out for that gap!

(English football clubs agree to join European 'Super League')

NEW POEM: 'DATA COLLECTION'

 DATA COLLECTION

Test it

Measure it

Calculate its length

Analyse it

Scrutinise it 

Quantify its strength

Log it

Clock it

Tabulate it too 

Theorise

Statisticise 

Explore it through and through

Poke it

Prod it 

Determine its dimensions 

Dissect it

Inspect it 

Pay it close attention

Starve it

Carve it

Stick it on a slab…

Four-year-old children

Don’t belong

In a lab.

(government plans to introduce tests for 4 year olds)

NEW POEM: MY PURPOSE

MY PURPOSE

After Gary Larson 

Yesterday I found my purpose.

It was down the back of the sofa. 

Not as big as I’d remembered,

it was covered in some kind of fluff.

I found it alongside a couple of pencils

and a foreign coin. 

I brushed it off, and held my purpose

in the palm of my hand. 

Wasn’t much to write home about.

I put it on the mantelpiece 

with my old Ian Fleming novels

and my third-place prize from that

poetry competition in 1998.

Now I sit staring at my purpose,

the one I’d never given

much thought to. 

Might put it in the attic for a while;

the cat is bound to knock it

off the shelf.

A Poem in praise of Teaching Assistants

TA

Teaching

Assistant 

Totally

Amazing

Terrifically

Awesome

Terribly

Affable

Tangibly 

Astounding 

Time to 

Appreciate

Thanks 

A million

Ta!

(teaching assistants 'unsung heroes' on the pandemic - Guardian)