
Category Archives: Australian children’s poetry
Poetry prompt #10 “What do you see?”
Leave a comment
What do you see?
Please send poems to poemoftheday.jaxton@gmail.com
Regards
Jeanie
“ The erky-perky bird” By James Aitchison
Leave a commentI saw the erky-perky bird flying through the sky. I saw the erky-perky bird had only got one eye.
It did an erky-perky from high up in the sky. But when it circled back again, I saw its second eye!
The moral of the story's clear: Do not be misled. The erky-perky bird has eyes both sides its head.

“A Nonet in Celebration of Worms”
Leave a commentby J. Brydon Stewart
Of all the living creatures yet found,
In the air, the sea or the ground.
There are none quite like the worm.
They squiggle and they squirm.
They live in the earth.
For what it’s worth.
I like them…
On toast.
Yum!

“Who’s Next?” by Jeanie Axton
2 CommentsThe Future
A callout for an incredible opportunity for the “right writer”.
Are you a children’s poet with a passion for sharing poetry and promoting Australian children’s poets and their work?
An enthusiastic volunteer is needed to take over the administration of this popular blog in the next six months starting before January 2023.
After working on Australian Children’s Poetry for five years, I feel the time has come to step aside and hand over to someone new. Next year I will be at times travelling with my husband who has retired.
What will you gain from being the administrator?
You will get to meet, mainly in a digital form, a lot of great writers and learn from them.
You get to read all sorts of children’s poetry and grow as a writer as you read.
You will learn how to determine what’s suitable for children and what is not and make decisions on that.
You get to create prompts which encourage writers to use their creativity to write and send in poems to you.
You will be contributing to the showcasing and promotion of Australian Children’s Poetry in our country.
If you are a writer who publishes books this position would enhance your career.
Here is a link to the site
https://australianchildrenspoetry.com.au/blog/
Basically, what does the administrator’s role involve?
- Receiving poems by email and posting the Poem of the Day to the blog. Currently we run the poems on fortnightly prompts with poems posted each weekday during a school year. The site uses WordPress and after a bit of practice its straightforward.
- Approving (or trashing spam) comments
- Updating the A-Z of Australian children’s poets as required. Instructions are given for this.
- Sharing information about competitions and articles about Australian children’s poetry.
- Secure Funding for incidental expenses associated with the site. For example, the Domain name through GoDaddy and WordPress Fee. Administrators have either paid these in the past or secured a little funding. I would think there are grants that can be accessed in Australia to help with these.
- Networking with poets and taking the website in the direction you think it should go next.
How to apply:
Please send in one A4 page addressing the following
- Introduce yourself
- Tell me about your writing journey with poetry.
- Briefly outline why you would like to take on this role?
Please email to poemoftheday.jaxton@gmail.com
Thankyou
Jeanie
“Snowball Earth” by Celia Berrell
Leave a commentOver two billion years back in the past the Earth’s like a snowball with frozen white crusts.
The carbon dioxide levels were low which made our world colder and covered in snow.
Life had evolved as small single cells. But many would die as the temperatures fell.
Since some could survive that long glacier spell, could other ice worlds hide life-forms as well?
First published in Double Helix (Jul 2016)
Reproduced with permission of CSIRO
