The rat’s drum
A rat bought a drum,
A very nice drum,
And played it down in the drain.
Rat-a-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat,
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat.
He played on that drum,
That very nice drum,
Until it started to rain.
Rat-a-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat,
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat.
The drain filled up fast,
The water surged past,
And washed everything away.
That was the end, that was the end,
That was the end of the rat-a-tat-tat.
Author Archives: australianchildrenspoetry
“Snoopy Spiders” by Celia Berrell
Leave a commentSnoopy Spiders
Spiders don’t have any ears.
They don’t have any ear-drums.
And so we thought they couldn’t hear
and only felt their webs strum.
But scientists who’ve scanned their brains
noticed they responded
when squeaky chairs and music strains
from far away were sounded.
Special hairs that wobble when
a soundwave moves the air
means jumping spiders hear quite well
through nerves attached to hairs.
These snoopy spiders listen-in
for buzzing enemies
like deadly wasps that sting and sing
some scary melodies!
“Seaside Stroll” by Monty Edwards
Leave a commentSeaside Stroll
When weather’s getting warmer
And summer’s on its way,
We adults walk the sandy shore
While gazing at the bay.
There gentle waves plant kisses
On sand beneath our feet.
As ripples make soft music
With soothing random beat.
But sudden squarks of seagulls
Disturb the peaceful scene,
As children chase them skywards
From where at rest they’d been.
With scores of scolding seagulls
And children’s shouts of glee,
Our peaceful stroll was over
So soon beside the sea.
“Cumquats And Wotnots” by Diane Finlay
Leave a commentDid you ever
tango with a mango
or mince with a quince
peel a lychee by the sea
or kiss a ‘blue’ berry?
Can you really
make rhymes with limes
or mix melons with lemons
blow GIANT raspberries
or get stuck in a strawberry jam?
Did you ever
scare a pear
or grapple with an apple
watch peaches on beaches
or discover plums have bums?
Can you really
tie cumquats with wotnots
feed grapes to apes
put a pawpaw on a seesaw
or be mean to a nectarine?
Did you ever
can-can with a rambutan
see grapefruits in suits
take kiwi’s to Fiji
or wonder why this rhyme began?
© Diane Finlay
“Quayside, Winter,” by J. R. Poulter
Leave a comment
TEACHER NOTES
Winter in Australia is very variable.
Activity: Watch the weather report for mid winter and compare the weather report that night for Darwin and for Hobart.
List five reasons for the big difference in temperatures.
Activity: How do you know winter has arrived?
List five things that tell you the season has changed.
Activity: What images in the poem suggest to you that the scene depicted in the poem is set in winter?
“Wired Barbs” by Andrew Carter
Leave a commentWired Barbs
A farmer exhales
warmed, wintry breath –
sights his twisted defence
Snowy River drifts
drift in against single-
Sunlight melts frost
on topmost wires
taut once, now – awry
Like the farmer’s frame
once tight, so straight,
today – it is maligned
Rusty, frosty memories
surface with pain –
undone by morning sun
Crops, stock – surrounded;
fenced by furnace-forged steel
now – long gone cold
Too old to play God
with beast, or crop
Too young to give in.
“My feeling of Rainbow” by Toni Newell
Leave a commentMy feeling of Rainbow
I want to climb a rainbow,
And see how high I go,
Then slide back down the other side,
Land in the pot of gold.
I want to strum the colours,
Like a base guitar,
Feel the colours wash over me,
And take me to afar.
I want to use the rainbow,
As an artist’s palette,
Mix the colours to create,
A brightly coloured parrot.
But most of all I want to see,
A rainbow across the sky,
Giving hope of finer weather,
As in times gone by.
“Frost in Oz” by James Aitchison
Leave a comment
FROST IN OZ
I see icicles everywhere —
On my bike and on the stair.
Down on the gate and on the grass,
Our chooks are giving eggs a pass.
I see icicles hither and yon,
I see them hanging on Uncle Ron,
And on my mother’s washing too.
I reckon this year the frost is worse,
With icicles on the local hearse.
I’ve never seen this kind of dew —
What’s Australia coming to?
“Fussy Rainbow-Eaters” by Celia Berrell
Leave a commentFussy Rainbow-Eaters
Leaves choose mostly orange-red
then bands of blue
to violet.
Using light to make a meal
of carbohydrate’s
sweet appeal
their chloroplasts feed on the Sun.
But only parts of
light’s spectrum.
Leaves don’t use all sunshine’s beams.
It seems they rarely
eat their greens!
Celia Berrell
First published in Double Helix(October 2015)
Reproduced with permission of CSIRO
www.doublehelix.csiro.au
Australian Children’s Poetry 