Inside the pocket of my shorts it’s dark and not too clean,
But you might just decipher the colours red and green.
There’s a length of string that’s red or faded nearly pink
A piece of a tangelo skin that’s sweeter than you think
A dandelion head there is, that’s rather sad and squashed
A blade of grass that’s all green now but changes when it’s washed
A toffee wrapper, blue as blue, that’s sticky-d up the dark
As well a stone of purplish-grey I found when in the park.
Rainbow colours but oh no, not the rainbow with its glow
Far too dirty, far too dank, it all needs cleaning to be frank.

Hard edges, cooling to the touch. I take it out and rub it clean
Angled just right toward the sun, its transparency is seen
In coloured bands breaks up the light,
and then stream through the colours bright
A wondrous pleasure to bestow
the prism bears its own rainbow.

Virginia Lowe

The 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?

1. 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.
2. Approving (or trashing spam) comments
3. Updating the A-Z of Australian children’s poets as required. Instructions are given for this.
4. Sharing information about competitions and articles about Australian children’s poetry.
5. 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.
6. 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

1. Introduce yourself
2. Tell me about your writing journey with poetry.
3. Briefly outline why you would like to take on this role?

Please email to poemoftheday.jaxton@gmail.com

Thankyou

Jeanie