Flying weather
Mum, Dad and I examined the day-
Wintery, wild and windy,
A flurry of snow,
Oh how the wind blows,
And there goes Mrs. McGivney.
For someone who doesn’t like flying that much,
She should leave her brolly at home.
A flurry of snow,
Oh how the wind blows,
Wintery, wild and windy.
By Louise McCarthy
The Gloopityglug
The Gloopityglug
Is a monstrous bug,
It gloops and it glugs
All over my rug.
Its Gloopity goo
Will stick to my shoe,
Slimy and shiny
And stinking like poo.
James Aitchison
Spooks at school
Our school at night is a fearsome sight —
the windows are dark, with not a light.
And if you dared go inside you’d find
ghosts and ghouls of every kind.
Classrooms by day are busy places;
at night they become haunted spaces
where wicked spirits practise dark arts,
and bloodthirsty vampires play darts.
Hear zombies calling assembly rolls,
Checking the names of tormented souls.
Moonlit mayhem and witches galore,
monsters hiding under the floor.
But why put up with trepidation
while you gain an education?
Take some advice: Attend school by day;
the rest of the time — stay away!
Betty’s hair
I once knew a girl called Betty
Whose hair looked just like spaghetti.
She tied it in strands
With big rubber bands,
Then chopped it up for confetti.
James Aitchison
About James:
My poetry plans for 2018: write more children’s poems, experiment with new forms and themes, and build up a collection for a book.
Armpit
Armpit, armpit,
Look at you!
You’re so hollow —
What to do!
You like to sweat
And grow hair,
No wonder you’re
Hiding there!
James Aitchison
Anticipation
Know you’re inside.
Heard
the floorboards creak,
and the chair ping.
Know
you’re treading quietly
Know
you’ll open door – to me,
‘specially to me,
if I don’t
make fuss.
Won’t make fuss. Won’t.
Nnnnyeup. Come on, come on
Waiting. Can’t you tell?
Open door. Open.
Won’t rush in,
Want you out. Out!
Don’t I?
Heard word
The word – w-a-l-k, Walk!
Can’t trick me.
Know we’re going,
soon
Yeeeing. Not soon enough!
Steps louder
You’re at door, at it.
Open. Open now!
Before wag tail off,
before get dizzy, turning, turning.
Oh, gruff, wruff, nnnyeupp!
Oh, yes, yes, door opening.
Open!
And… we’re off. To park
To bark and run,
And have some fun.
Revolutionary Evolution
In eighteen hundred and thirty one
when Charles was only twenty-two
he sailed upon the Beagle’s run
to chart the lands and ocean blue.
Collecting samples on the way
of creatures, plants and fossils found
he drew and wrote his notes each day
of all the life-forms that abound.
This five-year trek to foreign lands
made Darwin sick, which wasn’t good.
But dedication, task in hand,
he always did the best he could.
Returning home, he thought a lot
and started to experiment
to test his theories, note and jot
what everything he learnt had meant.
His famous book was published in
the year of eighteen fifty nine.
The Bishop said it was a sin
and contravened the Church’s line.
“On The Origin of Species”
was published, eighteen fifty nine.
This work on Evolution still
amazes us as most sublime
The first ever spacewalk
In March of 1965
Alexi Leonov survived
the zero pressure out in space
and won the human spacewalk race.
500 k above our world
Alexi floated, spun and twirled.
He felt just like a grain of sand;
a tiny speck in space so grand.
His Russian air-filled space-suit soon
expanded like a big balloon.
Calamity. He’s now too big
to fit inside the capsule rig!
He’d lost the use of glove and boot;
was forced to leak air from his suit.
Intense twelve minutes: fear and fun.
He made it home. The race was won
The Bubble Rap
(an accidental invention)
Back in the fifties
there’s Alfred and Marc.
Two keen engineers
with plenty of spark.
Making a wallpaper
easy to clean
by coating it in
polyethylene.
Their plans were a flop
as blisters went pop.
With troublesome bubbles
the wallpaper’s dropped.
They couldn’t get rid
of that air-filled gap.
Instead they’d invented
the bubble wrap!
If you’re way off track
or you need some slack.
If you think you’ll crack
or you’ve lost the knack
If you’re in a flap
and your mind might snap
then pack up your troubles
in bubble wrap.
Moisture resistant
elastic and strong
it won’t scratch your things.
Abrasion is wrong.
Cushion possessions
on pockets of air.
It makes a good bed
if there’s more than one layer.
Pop it and snap it
or bend it and wrap it.
Bubbles in plastic’s
the best way to pack it.
About Celia:
CELIA BERRELL’s keeping out of mischief.
I’m always on the lookout for fun science snippets to share through the CSIRO’s Double Helix magazine, so I scour the science news on the internet most days in my spare time. This July The Science Rhymes book – Second Edition will off to the printers! It’s got twice as many poems as the first edition and I’ve chosen Jabiru Publishing to be my partner, as was a bit lonely publishing the first edition on my own. Some Whitfield State School students have been attending my Poetry Club meetings over the last couple of months and will be spending part of their holiday break creating their own Science Rhymes about famous scientists and awesome discoveries, for a SCIENCE HALL OF FAME (please share your poems too!). We will then present our poems in a recital for National Science Week (11th – 19th August). You can see the examples I created for our Poetry Club by clicking the Download tab on the Science Rhymes website. I’m currently waiting to hear back from the Cairns Tropical Writers Festival organisers to find out if I will have a BOOK LAUNCH with them on Friday 10th August at the Hilton Hotel, Cairns. If they say YES, I’ll be looking for brave school students to help present some poems from the new book. It’s a really exciting year!
Anton’s Microscopes
Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723)
(beasts on your teeth!)
A Dutchman named Anton
was someone you’d count on
to tell you precisely
the things he could see.
A microscope maker
and shopkeeping draper
discovering life that’s
as small as can be.
He magnified beasts that
he scraped from his teeth
and watched as they swam
like some creatures in seas.
Learning there’s animals
formed from just single-cells.
Seeing that even a
flea can have fleas!
Finding bacteria
in our interior.
Sending this news
across the sea.
Anton astounded us.
What he had found in us
started the science
mi-cros-co-py
Australian Children’s Poetry 