Category Archives: Poem of the Day

Do Not Disturb by Irene Buckler

Leave a comment

D  O     N O T    D I S T U R B

 

I feel impatient to begin my quest

My card is clutched tightly to my chest,

As I enter this place where ideas reside

This amazing space wherein worlds can collide:

The past, the present and future days –

In a profusion of factual and fictional ways

 

I feel a hunger, but I must explain

The urge I have is to feed my brain

With words and images that intertwine

To create an experience, uniquely mine:

Be it action, adventure, romance or mystery,

Fantastic or funny or all about history

 

I feel the need, the need to read

And in this library, I shall succeed

I will peruse those books that catch my eye

And I will choose just one to take aside

Then I warn you, in case you have not heard

I am longing to read – so do not disturb!

 

Irene Buckler

Ho Kookaburra by Katherine Gallagher

Leave a comment

Ho Kookaburra

 

Ho Kookaburra

can’t sing a note –

 

all of his songs

get caught in his throat.

 

Ho Ho Ho Ho Ha Ha Ha,

it sounds easy but it’s not

 

as he scrapes and cackles, saws away,

it’s the only song he’s got.

 

It’s enough to make you laugh –

that’s the one thing he can do…

 

Try to copy him – Ho Ho Ho Ho

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ho Ho Ho Ho

 

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ho Ho Ho –

your sides will shake in two.

Katherine Gallagher

 

If I Were a Kid by Jane Williams

Leave a comment

If I were a kid

If I were a kid

instead of a child

I’d call Mum, Nanny

and I’d be wild!

 

A wild non-child

never keeping still

I’d nibble her handbag

then run for the hills.

 

If I were a kid

and not just a child

I’d call Dad, Billy

and I’d be wild!

 

A wild non-child

always butting in

I’d kick up a fuss,

and wear a silly grin

 

But I am what I am,

and that’s all I can be

except on those days

when it’s plain to see…

 

The child in the kid.

The kid in the child.

Each a little bit tame,

Each a little bit wild!

 Jane Williams

Icy Fruit by Anna Jacobson

Leave a comment

Icy Fruit

 

On a stinking hot day in grade four,

our teacher read us a poem
about icy watermelon.

 

She tormented us with its words.

Sweat ran down

our backs—

 

we groaned, thinking

of the cold fruit in our hands,

the juice running down our chins.

 

Instead we sat cross-legged

on the itchy carpet floor,

gathering pins and needles.

 

Anna Jacobson

The Dugong by Kristina Hoy

Leave a comment

The Dugong

 

swish, swish, chomp

swish, swish, chomp

 

the gentle dugong

grazed slowly on the grass

fronds waving in the sea

water clear as glass

 

swish, swish, chomp

swish, swish, chomp

 

bristled snout aquiver

surrounded by this lunch

roughened lips are ready

to grasp and crunch and munch

 

swish, swish, chomp

swish, swish, chomp

 

six long minutes pass

tummy full of greens

the timid herbivore

sticks snout above to breathe

 

woooosh

 

“Is that a… ?”

 

“shhhhhhh!”

 

safe back underwater

grass plentiful to chew

this quiet dugong

finds a home in the Ningaloo

 

swish, swish, chomp

swish, swish, chomp

 

© Kristina Hoy

A Hairy Problem by Jenny Erlanger

Leave a comment

A Hairy Problem

 

If she hadn’t asked what

she should do with the knot

that was causing her terrible trouble

she’d be sitting right there

with a full head of hair

and not running her fingers through stubble.

I’d requested she sit

while I looked at the bit

that she said always tangles and frizzes

and I have to confess

I’ve created a mess.

I should never have picked up the scissors.

 

©  Jenny Erlanger

Do Not Disturb by Irene Buckler

Leave a comment

D  O     N O T    D I S T U R B

 

I feel impatient to begin my quest

My card is clutched tightly to my chest,

As I enter this place where ideas reside

This amazing space wherein worlds can collide:

The past, the present and future days –

In a profusion of factual and fictional ways

 

I feel a hunger, but I must explain

The urge I have is to feed my brain

With words and images that intertwine

To create an experience, uniquely mine:

Be it action, adventure, romance or mystery,

Fantastic or funny or all about history

 

I feel the need, the need to read

And in this library, I shall succeed

I will peruse those books that catch my eye

And I will choose just one to take aside

Then I warn you, in case you have not heard

I am longing to read – so do not disturb!

 

© Irene Buckler

Uncle Quimby’s Quandock by Carolyn Eldridge-Alfonzetti

Leave a comment

Uncle Quimby’s Quandock

 

Uncle Quimby had a quandock – a champion of its breed;

he fed it tripe and honey; exercised it on a lead.

But quandocks can be vicious pets, as everybody knows,

and Uncle’s crimson quandock liked to chew on human toes!

It all became too much for him.  So, hobbling into town,

he swapped it for a snoogle — vegetarian and brown.

 

Carolyn Eldridge-Alfonzetti

 

 

(First published in The School Magazine – Countdown, June 2007 [Vol. 92 No. 5] Acknowledgement requested if published elsewhere)