I should have sent some flowers,
I should have sent a card,
but then I got so busy
and it was all too hard!
So I cut some nice red roses
at next door’s in the dark,
and added lots of other things
growing in the park.
It made a lovely gift
and didn’t cost a cent.
Isn’t it the thought that counts
and not how much I spent?
Milo and I took a stroll through the park.
Mum said “Remember! Be home before dark.”
We spotted a goanna hiding in the grass.
He was in our way so we couldn’t get past.
Milo can’t talk but he sure can bark.
He scared that goanna right out of the park.
We came upon a cassowary underneath a tree.
I didn’t like the way that he was looking at me.
Milo can’t talk but he sure can bark.
He scared that bird right out of the park.
We crept up on a snake that was resting in the shade.
It made a hissing noise and I felt quite afraid.
Milo can’t talk but he sure can bark.
He scared that snake right out of the park.
We noticed an echidna searching for some ants,
all around the tree roots and up and down the plants.
Milo can’t talk but he sure can bark.
He scared that echidna right out of the park.
Then I said to Milo it’s getting very dark.
It’s just about time that we were leaving this park.
But just as we’d decided we really shouldn’t stay,
who do you think was standing in our way?
With looks on their faces that made me start to shake,
goanna, echidna, cassowary, snake.
Standing at the front and peering through the grass
was old man goanna who wouldn’t let us pass.
And echidna and cassowary looking so mean
that my knees started knocking, what a frightening scene.
Waiting right beside them to give us such a scare
was snake with his forked tongue testing the air.
Milo can’t talk and he couldn’t even bark.
We were both so scared we ran right out of that park!
I saw some rocks in Ireland
and the farmer there explained,
“I built myself a little wall
to keep my sheep contained.”
“The big stones on the bottom,”
the smaller ones on top,
and it cost me not a penny
for my roaming sheep to stop.”
“And who needs to have a gate
when you have this kind of pen?
I just lift some stones away,
then put them back again.”
Teacher’s note: Dry stone walls are constructed of carefully selected interlocking stones without mortar to hold them in place. Found in hilly areas of Britain, Scotland and Ireland, especially in Connemara on the West Coast where large stones exist in the soil. One system of Irish dry stone walls was carbon-dated to 3800 BC. Closer to home, dry stone walls can be found in western Victoria, some parts of Tasmania, and around Kiama in New South Wales.
Mist weeps across the peaty land,
the breaths of ancient warriors
clothe the peaks.
High clouds roam above
the raw silence, a hint of gleaming
in their midst.
Once battles rolled throughout
these glens, as Highlanders
fought the King’s red-coated men.
No invader has stormed
these hills again, and peace
rests upon the folded crests.
Frances Felicity Frankenstein
Will you be my valentine?
Though your surname is not glamorous
Your smile always makes me amorous.
Last week when I held your hand
I knew our love was something grand.
We’ve been together twelve whole weeks,
Our bond is something quite unique.
Although you have a mono-brow
I still adore you anyhow.
It’s true three of your teeth are missing,
But I don’t notice when we’re kissing.
I love to hold you every day
And know that you will always stay.
Perhaps, come many years from now,
We could exchange wedding vows.
I’ll lift your veil and kiss your freckles;
Your name will then be Mrs Jekyll.
A Thorny Dragon’s
crazy coat
has scary spikes
and grooves of note.
This makes him look
quite weird and cute.
And acts as lizard’s
drinking suit!
Capillary action is a way
that water moves
through narrow grooves.
Its surface tension
climbs and clings.
Especially to narrow things.
To get a drink
our lizard stands
beneath wet plants
or soggy sand.
The water finds
his groovy skin
then moves to mouth
and trickles-in.
Watch this National Geographic video to learn more about this amazing creature
I am the vast waters beneath the ramparts,
the icy wash against black rocks;
I am the broad distances veiled by mist,
the deep and eerie lochs.
I am embedded
in every Scottish soul,
so that man, with country,
becomes part of the whole.
I wrote a poem for you,
straight from my heart,
to say how much I loved you,
right from the start.
But now it is all over,
our time was short, but sweet –
my double choc gelato,
you were wonderful to eat!
A billion hours ago,
(count them if you must),
our ancestors were living
before they turned to dust.
It was the Stone Age then,
and Man was in fine fettle,
after which the Bronze Age
saw Man start using metal.
I wonder if their knives and forks
back then were made of stone?
Or did people eat without them,
or maybe they used bone?
Did they go to school back then,
or did they work all day?
I think that I am lucky
to be alive today!
Teacher’s note: The prehistoric Stone Age period, when stone tools were used, lasted 3.4 million years, ending with the advent of metalworking. It is believed that the Stone Age represents nearly 99.3% of human history.
There’s a possum on my roof
and he’s not eating cake
He is stomping up and down
keeping me awake
There’s a possum on my roof
learning the highland fling
He is happily enjoying it
but it’s not my sort of thing
There a possum on my roof
tapping out a beat
He finds it pretty handy
having thumbs on both his feet
There’s a possum on my roof
I wish he would go home
Up to his branch in the tree
and leave me quietly alone
Australian Children’s Poetry 