Dinosaurs’ Breakfast Special
Urns of slime
and reptiles’ heads,
giants’ feet
and mouldy breads.
Icy hearts
and mountain eggs,
a ton of tongues
and turtle-legs.
Frogs and beetles
chewed to gristle,
old pine cones
and spicy thistle.
Snake-flesh paste
and baby whales,
slowly simmering
heads and tails.
Blackfish eyes
and stingray skin
mixed and mixed
till slimy thin.
All gulped down
with spidery glue
which sleepy dinosaurs
forget to chew. . .
©Katherine Gallagher
Twiggy
Stick insects are so very thin
Yet still insist on shedding skin
And even when they grow much bigger
Will maintain their sylph-like figure.
Butterfly
Soft as a dew drop
It lands
Dancing lightly
Upon pansy and petunia
Coloured wings flash and flutter
Delicate in the sunlight
Still for a moment
Then off again
Flitting from flower to flower
Sipping sweet nectar
Heralding Spring
Butterfly!
Haystack
Look! Rats and the children run out from
their hiding places in the haystack to
dance in front of us in a merry line?
Who else do you think hides here?
Do you have a memory of haystacks or
artist’s haystacks?
(Perceval’s Angel)
Tumble down the Haystack
dreaming columns of Greece.
Tumble down the Haystack
with childhood farming friends.
Tumble down the Haystack
to horses and the cows.
Now,
climb up that artist’s Haystack
and tumble down again.
June Perkins (Brisbane-based poet and children’s author)
Art Adventures in the Australian Collection of the Queensland Art Gallery showing from September to November 2018
Dr June Perkins, a Brisbane based poet and children’s author, has developed an interactive journey, through the Australian Collection, through poems and micro-stories for visitors of all ages, with particular appeal for children and families: Art Adventures in the Australian Collection.
She invites you to follow the angel, follow the feathers, follow the art.
This adventure is part of Words & Pictures, an ongoing project that invites local artists and writers to respond to artworks in the Australian Collection of the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane.
Visitors to the gallery are invited to take inspiration, and use the pencils and paper provided at the stations to create their own response through drawing or writing.
There are 12 pieces in all. ‘Haystack,’ was inspired by William Delafield Cook, A Haystack.
Perceval’s Angel is a character who takes the children on an adventure into the art gallery and so is often quoted.
From September – to November, this link will lead you to the poems and the art if you can’t make it there in person to visit the adventure.
https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/australian-collection/quiet
A slide show preview can be found here https://ripplepoetry.wordpress.com/2018/09/02/wordsandpictures/
Image: William Delafield Cook A haystack 1982,
Courtesy of the Queensland Art Gallery
Impropagation
A crack in the concrete is all it takes
for a small seed to lodge and germinate.
Its roots exude acid dissolving cement.
And so it has grown where it wasn’t meant.
Ignored by pedestrians tramping through
with sunlight and water it proudly grew.
And look at it now. Majestic and high.
Being kissed and blessed by a butterfly!
Inspired by the Artwork Living Freedomby Sharon Davson www.davsonarts.com
BUTTERFLY MOTHER
Dancing the tune of the breeze
She lifts her coat sleeves –
And freezes as if in prayer
To breed in the shady leaves;
Green confetti in air.
On the rib-case underneath –
A waxy seam of leaf,
Tiny eggs, colour of cream
Are stuck with butterfly paste.
Blue lady lifts as a dream,
Leaving them, to hatch or waste.
Who knows where she goes
Blue butterfly mother?
© Dianne Bates
Food art
This mashed potato sculpture
is a splendid work of art,
the best I’ve ever seen, I’d have to say
and every slice of carrot,
carved to look just like a heart,
you’ve set out in a most creative way.
The broccoli looks pretty
cut in perfect little flowers.
I love the way the peas spell out my name
and I know that you’ve been working
on this masterpiece for hours,
but I’m sorry, every night I feel the same.
It doesn’t really matter
what you do to all this food,
what handiwork you serve me up for tea.
I may seem quite ungrateful
and perhaps a little rude,
but, they still all taste like vegetables to me!
Jenny Erlanger
Sweet Dreams
Starry night, a quarter moon.
Owls and frogs recite a tune.
Listen, listen…
What do they say?
Sweet dreams, sweet dreams…
Sweet dreams they pray.
By Louise McCarthy
Australian Children’s Poetry 