Author Archives: australianchildrenspoetry

“Food Art” by Jenny Erlanger

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Food art

This mashed potato sculpture

is a splendid work of art,

the best I’ve ever seen, I’d have to say

and every slice of carrot,

carved to look just like a heart,

you’ve set out in a most creative way.

The broccoli looks pretty

cut in perfect little flowers.

I love the way the peas spell out my name

and I know that you’ve been working

on this masterpiece for hours,

but I’m sorry, every night I feel the same.

It doesn’t really matter

what you do to all this food,

what handiwork you serve me up for tea.

I may seem quite ungrateful

and perhaps a little rude,

but, they still all taste like vegetables to me!

 

“Pat’s Cafe” by Chris Owen

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Pat’s Café

Have you heard about this restaurant? They call it Pat’s Café,

It’s famous for its specialties like ‘Dungball of the Day’,

The punters flock from far afield to try the bolognaise,

Made from the finest cow manure and slurry mayonnaise.

 

They do a lovely paddock pie (the critics all agree),

That’s cooked from fresh ingredients they grow organically,

And for the connoisseur there’s much to make them lick their lips,

Like cowpat flavoured fizzy-pop with battered dung and chips,

 

But the top dish on the menu simply has to be a scoop,

Of dung ice-cream and sprinkles with a giant squirt of poop.

Yes, Pat’s Café gets rave reviews from diners in the know,

There’s nowhere else that dung beetles with taste would rather go.

 

“Bee Butterfly” by Andrew Carter

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“Creating Fun” by JR Poulter

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“Sharpen Up Mr Squiggle” by Jeanie Axton

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Sharpen Up Mr Squiggle

 

After 60 years of drawing

his nose was all but blunt

So our famous Mr Squiggle

went on a sharpener hunt

 

He took his rocket to the moon

with Blackboard and Miss Jane

They found a big red sharpener

and his pencils sharp again

 

“The Year of the Pig” by Jan Darling

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“My Funny Valentine” by James Aitchison

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MY FUNNY VALENTINE 
(Allergic to love…)
 
My love is like a red, red rose
That tickles my poor girlfriend’s nose.
It makes her wheeze,
It makes her sneeze,
Be my Valentine, there she blows —
 
         Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh CHOOO!

Valentine Acrostic by Monty Edwards

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Very special person;
Always on my mind;
Listens to my worries;
Ever very kind;
Never shouts in anger;
Trusts me too, I find.
I declare
None compare.
(Every lover’s blind).

“A Summer Ottava Rima” by James Aitchison

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A SUMMER OTTAVA RIMA 

The crash of waves is always in the air,

And caravans adorn the crowded shore.

People roast on towels without a care,

Or find new rocky outcrops to explore.

Crunchy crystal sand grows too hot to bear,

Yet we stay: it’s what all Aussies yearn for!

In summertime, this is our golden place;

Then winter comes and banishes all trace.

                                               James Aitchison

THE OTTAVA RIMA is a very rhythmic form of Italian poetry, first written in the fourteenth century.

Lord Byron and William Butler Yeats also used the form.

The rules:

  1. Each stanza has 8 lines
  2. You can create one stanza as a stand alone 8-line poem, or write multiple stanzas
  3. The first six lines have an a-b-a-b-a-b rhyme scheme, capped with a c-c couplet
  4. Mostly an ottava rima is written in iambic pentameter or 10-syllable lines.

Have fun!