Hold me, hold me, hold me tight,
I get frightened in the night
by those birds and possums too,
I feel safe when I’m with you!
In My Dreams: a nonsense poem by James Aitchison
Leave a commentWhen I go to sleep at night,
I dream of lots of things.
Blue spaghetti and bowls of fruit,
A four-legged man playing a flute,
A buffalo with purple wings,
A refrigerator taking flight.
That’s why I like to stay awake
And think of triple-layered cake.
I Found A Whale by James Aitchison
Leave a comment(in response to Prompt #4)
I found a whale
made of stone,
sitting by the creek
all alone.
How it got there
I don’t know;
stuck on shore,
nowhere to go.
Teacher’s note: Whale Rock is one of many rock formations at Wilson’s Promontory National Park.
Our Garbage Man by James Aitchison
Leave a commentOur garbage man comes once a week
To empty out our bin,
He takes away everything
That Mum and Dad put in.
I wonder if he looks inside
To see what we’ve thrown out.
(All my worn out underpants
Would make him scream and shout!)
All our rotten vegies,
All our stinky cheese,
All the food that has expired,
Travels on the breeze.
No wonder he speeds off each week,
He doesn’t hang around.
With so much putrid garbage,
His wheels don’t touch the ground!
The Surging Tide by Jacinta Lou
Leave a comment(in response to Prompt #4)
In the sea live many ghosts
Of pirates, convicts and more.
Lost sunken treasure.
The remnants of war.
In my yard are fossils
Where the sea used to be,
Billions of years ago
Before there was me.
The sea is claiming back the land
On islands, it’s a disaster.
The billion year shift of tides
Is coming. It’s coming even faster.
It’s speeding up as the globe heats up
Is that about how we live?
To slow it down do we need to change
How we live, what we take, what we give?
Give back to the sea by keeping it clean
Of plastics, oil and junk.
Keep the land cool by reusing more
Or one day the land will be sunk.
The tide is turning.
Little Red Riding Hood by Jenny Erlanger
Leave a commentHer problems started long before
the poor child was pursued
by that conniving carnivore
who treated her as food.
Yes, long before she crossed that wood
to drop in on her nan,
and long before she wore a hood
her troubles all began.
How mortified she must have felt,
and I’d have felt the same,
at having heartlessly been dealt
with such a stupid name.
Mola Coaster by Celia Berrell
Leave a commentWhat’s flat like a flapjack
and round like a dish,
has two big strong fins
but no tail? It’s a fish!
This peculiar pelagic
sunbathes each day
and dives like a millstone
to feed on its prey.
Their babies are see-through.
The size of small pips,
they’ve eyes of surprise
and cute kissy lips.
But Sunfish grow up
to weigh over two tonnes.
Devouring sea jellies
is not just for fun!
First published in Double Helix issue #48 (Jun 2021)
Reproduced with permission of CSIRO
www.doublehelix.csiro.au
For more about these amazing sea creatures, follow the links below:
From the Smithsonian magazine Unraveling the Mysteries of the Ocean Sunfish
From Nine News Sunfish: Australian scientists behind discovery about huge yet elusive ocean beast
“The Plastic Pacific” & “Otter Snot” by James Aitchison
Leave a commentTHE PLASTIC PACIFIC
How much plastic is in the sea?
Fifty-one trillion pieces!
Fifty-one trillion ways to kill
all our ocean species.
Choking, snarling, killingwhales, turtles, and fish;
unless we stop dumping toxic trash
our oceans will diminish.
OTTER SNOT
Does
an otter
have snot
or not?
Whether or not
an otter has
snot,
I know
not.
James Aitchison
Ancient Secrets in the Sky by Celia Berrell
Leave a commentAustralia’s first people
shared knowledge that’s verbal
through story and song
both secret and long.
They studied the skies
and became very wise
in using the stars
to travel afar.
Star maps, like diaries
can jog song-line memories,
showing the best ways
we now use as highways.
When driving one day
on the Great Western Highway,
know ancient astronomy’s
part of its history.
“Holiday Rain” & “Critter Jitters” by Graham Seal
Leave a commentHOLIDAY RAIN
Rain’s back,
down it comes,
and now we’ve all got the glums.
Nothing to do, nothing at all,
just sit around and watch it fall.
Might as well be back at school –
NOT!
CRITTER JITTERS
My critter’s got the jitters
and he jives around like mad.
He’s made of wire, you wind him up
and he kind of makes you glad.
With crazy jerks and twirling twerks
he skitters round and round.
His clockwork heart winds quickly down
and makes a whirring sound.
But just last week I heard a squeak.
and before I even wound him,
my critter jittered out the door
and I never ever found him.
Graham Seal
Australian Children’s Poetry 