Poetry is capable of delivering so much to a reader. A lot of poetry sings and dances when we read it aloud. Poetry can also laugh and cry. It can shout and whisper. Poetry delivers emotion by drawing on a wide range of moods and feelings.  Best of all poetry does these things while using the very best of our words in tight spaces. This is what gives poetry it spark! Minimal words, maximum delivery. Poetry is as varied as life itself because it draws so much from the life we are here to live.  Importantly,  poetry is accessible to everyone of us. Anyone can write poetry should they choose to try. In order to write poetry however, it is essential to read a lot of poetry. You must read what you wish to write. This is what will make poetry your friend and trusted companion. Notice what poets are choosing to write about and also take note of the many ways they present poems on the page. Poetry offers such a feast of choices.  By reading poetry you gain a clear sen...

A somewhat whimsical retrospective poem to mark my 2018... Goodbye Eighteen Last year I failed to win the lottery Wasn’t an award recipient And I failed to repair anything of significance Last year I forget to cull my book collection Didn’t spend a single night in Paris And didn't compete in a marathon for the first time Last year  I chose not to watch Masterchef I didn’t get around to cleaning out my office desk And I failed to snap any selfies at famous landmarks Last Year I didn't eat a single snail -Nor a married one for that matter And yet again, I failed to find any joy in Trump's tweets Last year I still refused to like cats Or anchovies Or cats who like anchovies Last year Was similar to the year before This year shapes up as being the same

This poem is seasonally out of place. However, in its defence, it began during the recently completed football season in Australia. A time when football was very much in my thinking zone. I watched my football team win the coveted AFL Premiership after a drought of 37 long, and often painful years.  Today the AFL Draft for 2017 will be conducted. A day when young footballers Australia wide wait to see if they will have their dreams realized and get to play in the national competition. So, the football connection is restored somewhat... The words of the poem have taken time to reshape and fit into place. There have been numerous revisions.  It is a poem that owes its origins to a time and a place strongly linked to my childhood. I grew up in close proximity to the local football ground. Across the road, through the school-ground and I was there. It was a setting central to my childhood.  Do you have strong memories that connect places and events in your life? Maybe...

Image Poem This poem owes its existence to Georgia Heard's idea of the six room image poem where six elements are addressed in the writing that follows: Image Light Sound Questions Feelings Repetition The challenge is to expand our vision of selected images by attending to each element when writing. The idea is to spend time considering each of the six elements by thinking about them as rooms we must enter in order to think more deeply about our word choice. The Grandfather Clock The Grandfather clock Stood tall like a palace guard Marking time in Nana's lounge-room Against the wall Avoiding the sunlight streaming through lace curtained windows Tick-tocking as the pendulum swung in its unerring arc Brass and chains and moving arms  Encased behind a long glass face The clock announced the passing of each hour With blare and boom The rowdy ringing out Chased the silence from the room Why so loud? the small ones asked Why so tall? the small ones wond...

Poetry at Brighton Primary School, Adelaide, South Australia Recently I had the special treat of working with Year 7 poets from Brighton Primary School in Adelaide. During the day we closely examined a range of poetic structures and devices and applied them to our writing of poetry. With one group I introduced Suzanna Marshak’s  powerful book ‘I Am The Ocean’ to alert these enthusiastic poets to the potential power of writing through a mask and using personification. Another group looked at personification through their connection to things in the world around them.  Pre-writing discussion followed by intensive writing. Using the poem,  ‘I Am These Things And More’  as a model.  Students were challenged to think about these important connections. A particular focus of the writing was to try to incorporate effective use of repetition, line breaks, simile and white space in their composed pieces. These young poets talked in groups and ident...

What do you do when you want to remember something?  Do you say it to yourself again and again until you learn it?  That’s using repetition.  Repetition in poetry may include a word, a phrase, a line, or even a stanza the poet  wants to use more than once for particular effect. We hear it, We see it. We begin to feel its presence. When using repetition  the poet must make sure that what is repeated is important to the poem,  otherwise it can feel or sound overdone. In the poem, Bully For Me , I consciously repeated the words, 'But ours left'   in each stanza hoping to create a sense of relief in the mind of the reader. Bully For Me We had a bully at our school I think every school has one -But ours left Now, I can ride to school Relaxed We had a bully at our school -But ours left And now playtime is fun again We had a bully at our school -But ours left I wonder if that person is happy? Like me and my friends  Are now ...

In my eternal quest for poetry mentor texts that will support the sometimes tentative writing efforts of emerging student poets (and their teachers), I came across this poem by John Rice. It was part of a collection ‘Poems to Perform: A Classic Collection Chosen by the Children's Laureate,’Julia Donaldson. The poem has a simple repetitive structure that provides a safe scaffold for the less experience poet. Students immediately note the please do -please do not pattern and the way the poet finishes with a line that breaks the pattern, yet neatly ties the poet’s thoughts together. It’s as if he has an afterthought. They also noted the element of humour the poet had injected into the poem. For young poets, the presence of humour heightens engagement. Instructions For Giants Please do not step on swings parks, youth clubs, cinemas and discos Please flatten all schools Please do not eat children, pop stars, TV soap operas, kind grannies who give us  50cents Please feel free to gobble u...