As a child I was told endless tale tales by adults. Tales of questionable feats and acts of daring-do. Sometimes these tales were designed to either scare me unnecessarily, or encourage some degree of modification in my behavior. I was told to watch out for elephants who enjoyed squashing badly behaved children and to be afraid of going near the creek because crocodiles lived there -when in fact nothing remotely life threatening lived in the local waterways.  I further recall being told that green jelly was made from cow's hooves and that swallowing chewing gum could kill you. It would stick to your heart and you would die! It's amazing how such nonsensical stories stay with you. Well, I'm not too sure what the inspiration for this piece of contrived nonsense actually was, apart from a desire to have a bit of fun.  You might consider some of the slightly doubtful things adults told you in order to get you to cooperate, or merely to scare you into complying with t...

Terence Alan Milligan, known as 'Spike' (1918-2002) dedicated his life to making people laugh, through his performances on radio and television, through his poems and memoirs, and often just by being himself. A BBC poll in 1999 voted Spike 'The funniest person of the last 1,000 years.' -That's some accolade. Spike was the chief creator and writer of the famous Goon Show,  a British radio comedy programme, performed from 1951 to 1960. The cast also included, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine. Spike revelled in funny poems. He was influenced by Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll, two famous English poets of the past who also loved extravagant wordplay and nonsensical stories.  His verse was considered to be within the genre of literary nonsense. His most famous poem, On the Ning Nang Nong , was voted the UK's favourite comic poem in 1998 in a nationwide poll, ahead of other nonsense poets including Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear. It rem...

I recently had the pleasure of conducting a workshop on Wordplay and its important role in growing writers. Here are some of the messages I was able to share with participants. Trust they add to your thinking around the teaching of writing... Wordplay is such an omnipotent thing. It is unavoidable. Conversation, songs, TV shows advertisements, literature , greeting cards, brochures magazines and newspapers all employ word play abundantly. Everywhere we go, it leaps out at us. In many schools however the study of words, has over time, been shrunken down to mean little more than reading and vocabulary knowledge. And yet, I still recall my teachers encouraging me to play with malapropisms, oxymorons, listen for tautology and wonder at the mystery of invented words in Lewis Carroll's poem 'Jabberwocky.' I recall the fun we had creating rhyming couplets and discovering palindromic words. At home, my father regularly engaged me in wordplay and riddles. There were also ...

Using Colloquial Phrases and Idioms In Poetry   Idiom: An expression whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its words, as in kick the bucket (meaning to die).  Colloquialisms: A colloquialism is a word, phrase, or other form used in informal language. Such words and phrases develop and become part of the every day language. Strangely most people know exactly what they mean. The word, 'yobbo or yob' was used frequently when I was younger. The word was applied to young men considered to be poorly dressed, bad mannered and uneducated. Certain phrases and words expressions may develop in a particular language, dialect, or style of speaking. These terms may be used in conversation and writing in a particular country, state or region yet may be unknown to people living beyond that place, who remain unfamiliar with its use. Idioms and colloquialisms are continually being invented, while others fall out of use because they may have connections to a p...

A Little Bit of Poetry Nonsense It's fun to create new words and apply them to various situations. I can't imagine Lewis Carroll didn't have a smile on his face when writing his famous poem, Jabberwocky with its numerous invented words: `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves   Did gyre and gimble in the wabe All mimsy were the borogoves,   And the mome raths outgrabe. Well, this humble poem contains a single invented word. 'Neelywos'  but I have written it how I imagine it should be written, and the poem was fun to write. Word play and fun and inventiveness are an integral part of poetry. So, dive in at the deep end and enjoy a little bit of serious silliness and encourage your student poets to follow your lead... Neelywos I neelywos a plumber But that became a drain I neelywos a pilot But I found it somewhat plain I neelywos an author Things didn’t work out write I neelywos an electrician Until I saw the light I neelywos a j...