Road-side grass heads nodding
Mark the path
Echidna lumbers on oblivious
Virginia Lowe
Category Archives: Forms of Poetry
Specific poem formats
Do You Know What I Am? by Tabitha Page
Leave a commentClick, clack, click, clack
No, I’m not a knick-knack
Do you know what I am?
Can you do what I can?
Crash, clang, bang, bash
Eyes flash the cymbals smash
Put me down, see me go
Watch me give a tuneful show
Walking, marching, shuffling too
Do you need another clue?
Wind me up and I will roam
Romping, plodding through your home.
In a fancy stripy jacket,
Making such an awesome racket.
A very long and curly tail
Swirling like a garden snail
Brown and fluffy, squashed flat nose
Arms and legs and curly toes.
Do you know what I am?
Can you do what I can?
I am of course a children’s toy,
A lovable pal for girl or boy.
A wind-up monkey with a hat
To chase away that sneaky cat!
Polliwogs and Pobblebonks by Jenny Erlanger
Leave a commentI could be quite mistaken
but I’m feeling pretty sure
that polliwog’s a word
you’ve never come across before.
And pobblebonk’s another,
with a funny kind of sound,
a word I’m also certain
you have never seen around.
They’re not a type of candy
or variety of fish.
They’re not exotic items
in some oriental dish.
They don’t have beaks or feathers
and they’re not a breed of dog.
A polliwog’s a tadpole
and a pobblebonk’s a frog.
Silvery Riddle by Celia Berrell
Leave a commentSilvery Riddle
I will give you a smile if you care to look up
but I won’t show my face on a dark, dark night.
I will rule over oceans as though they are slaves
but I won’t ever say if that’s wrong or right.
I will make a lake’s surface a silvery spread
but I won’t share my shine when the day is bright.
I will block out the Sun every once-in-a-while.
My Solar Eclipse is an awesome sight!
Celia Berrell
Celia said: There was a Total Solar Eclipse over part of the USA recently. Our Moon is 400 times smaller, yet 400 times closer than the Sun. This precise difference makes them appear the same size from Earth. When they line up perfectly, it can take our breath away! Imagine what a riddle this event must have posed to people centuries ago, before we really understood the movements of the stars, planets and our silvery Moon.
My Being by Robyn Youl
Leave a commentMY
Being.
Blossoming Blooming
Balanced Bedazzling Ball-of-Fire
Being Befriended, Beloved By
ME
Robyn Youl
Robyn said: Nearly a Diamante! Every child is a diamond. Some need love to polish those prisms so they can shine. Poetry in kids’ prisons would help! What a marvelous thing for kids to do – create positive poems about themselves using this pattern!
Brave? by Monty Edwards
Leave a commentBrave?
Brave?
Be brave!
Be brave because . . .
Be brave because boldness . . .
Be brave because boldness brings . . .
Be brave because boldness brings benefits.
Be brave because boldness brings bigger benefits!
Monty Edwards
Tanka by Katherine Gallagher
Leave a commentTanka
Last night, the full moon
hung like a papery lamp
over my quiet road.
I savoured the chilly sky –
the moon tagging my shadow.
Katherine Gallagher
First published in The Unidentified Flying Omelette, ed. Andrew Fusek Peters, Hodder & Stoughton
RIVER (Acrostic) Poems
Leave a commentRiver, River by James Aitchison
River, river, I don’t know
River, river, where you flow
Your course varies north to south
Where’s your source? Where’s your mouth?
You’re a winding watery snake!
(Now read it again, starting from the bottom)
James Aitchison
The River Goes to Sleep by Alys Jackson
Ripples leave their
Imprints on a soft and sandy rise,
Vines are dipping fingers while the
Evening winks her eyes;
Resting crimson ribbons round the river’s dusty sides.
Alys Jackson
RIVER by Margaret Pearce
Running to school one cold wet day
Into dreams of escape and running away
Visiting islands full of sea and sun
Enjoying swimming and lots of fun
Returned to reality dark and grey.
Required homework not done yet
Idiot me never a teacher’s pet
Very hard to get past this disaster
Explaining why I can’t work faster
Rewriting forever the homework set.
Margaret Pearce
River by Virginia Lowe
Resting river, a rill rocks our raft
Icy depths of ink immersing ivy
Vacillation, veering with veritable vigour,
Exploration of each elemental eddy is exciting
Run raft run, rejoicing round the rapids
Virginia Lowe
RIVER RUN (Acrostic) by Jaz Stutley
Leave a commentRiver Run
Run river run:
sIlver over stones
riVer sobs and moans;
briEf gleam in the sun:
riveR run and run.
Run River run
rapId to the seas;
riVer leap with ease,
tEasing just for fun:
River run and run.
Jaz Stutley
Australian Children’s Poetry 