Tag Archives: Elizabeth Cummings

“Earthworms” by Elizabeth Cummings

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EARTHWORMS

 

Earthworm, you burrower extraordinaire

How can you stand to live down there

With your one cylindrical digestive tract

You move with the muscles that you contact

To make your body first short then long

And those bristles help propel you along

Through leaf litter, topsoil or deeper down

You help to mix up the stuff in the ground

This makes you the base of many a food chain

Yet your many skills are the environment’s gain

Your talent with organic matter is biological

And mixing tall the nutrients is a flair so chemical

Then there’s your physical ability of aerating

So the soil ecosystem’s restoration you’re helping

Thus let’s take some time to show a bit of gratitude

For how you improve the quality of our food!

 

 

“Worms both disgust and fascinate me! I remember my brother holding a worm in his hands as a toddler and exclaiming; ‘One worm two worms!’ as he pulled it part😱. After that I had nightmares about worms for years until one of my pupils brought a worm farm into the class and taught us all about he important work of the humble earthworm… a teacher can always learn from their students!

‘Let’s Pretend’ by Elizabeth Mary Cummings

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Let’s Pretend

 

I am so popular, I’m so in

I always have the next best thing!

 

You can see how good I am, it’s up to me

How in with the it-crowd you will be.

 

Always sure and what’s more, not scared one bit

For I know, I am a wonder, a big hit!

 

Never failing, never losing  and never unsure

Do you believe me? Okay, I’ll stop now and lie no more.

Elizabeth Mary Cummings

“Earthworms” by Elizabeth Cummings with Teacher Notes

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EARTHWORMS

 

 

Earthworm, you burrower extraordinaire

How can you stand to live down there

With no arms of legs in the soil so dark?

With your one cylindrical digestive tract

You move with the muscles that you contact

To make your body first short then long

And those bristles help propel you along

Through leaf litter, topsoil or deeper down

You help to mix up the stuff in the ground

This makes you the base of many a food chain

Yet your many skills are the environment’s gain

Your talent with organic matter is biological

And mixing tall the nutrients is a flair so chemical

Then there’s your physical ability of aerating

So the soil ecosystem’s restoration you’re helping

Thus let’s take some time to show a bit of gratitude

For how you improve the quality of our food!

 Elizabeth Cummings 

 

About Elizabeth: “Worms both disgust and fascinate me! I remember my brother holding a worm in his hands as a toddler and exclaiming; ‘One worm two worms!’ as he pulled it part😱. After that I had nightmares about worms for years until one of my pupils brought a worm farm into the class and taught us all about he important work of the humble earthworm… a teacher can always learn from their students!”

Teacher Notes by Jeanie Axton:

Read this poem to the class a few times and then ask a student to write key words on the whiteboard. As a class research and make a timeline of life in the worm farm. Look at how worms are a sign of a healthy garden and how worm tea helps condition soil and grow healthy plants.

If your really brave have a “Bring your gumboots day” and go out and collect worms to bring back to the classroom. Watch how they move and write a worm poem.

Remember to take the worms back to where you got them after the lesson. They belong in the environment.

 

Monday – Lying in Bed Elizabeth Cummings

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Monday – Lying in Bed

 

Monday’s here already

I just can’t get out of bed

The sun’s already shining

The dog’s waiting to be fed

I know I should get going

But I stretch and roll instead

As I think of the goal I scored

And what my teammates said

The aches and pains I feel

From the big bruise on my head

Are definitely worth it all –

I’ve got pre-season street cred!

 

Legacy by Elizabeth Cummings

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Haiku by Elizabeth Cummings

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Autumn leaves

Washed up with the jetsam

On the beach

I Love to Eat Bananas by Elizabeth Cummings

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Old John and the Rain by Elizabeth Cummings

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Old John and the Rain

I woke last night

And heard the rain

And as I lay there

Listening to the opera

That was the rain

And that the silence filled

A sense of gratitude

In my heart did grow

 

My bones still ached

And my hands so crooked

Stayed clawed and bent

Their toils outside

Were reaping a dividend

Plenty-fold and tonight

As I listen to that welcomed trespasser

I see my reward that awaits come dawn.

 

Sleep came again she did

Upon my weary limbs

My eyes, my mind, my heart

All heavy, so full and overflowing

Of all that life has been

And so dreams did come

And take me back to these blessed moments past

And I was young again

Till I woke at dawn to the sound of rain.

Elizabeth Cummings

Noisy World Poem by Elizabeth Cummings

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Noisy world poem

 

If I lie still

So still and true

No wriggle

No rustle

I

Can

Just

About

Hear

The

Hum and roar

And rise and

Fall and crash

And surge of

The gushing

Rushing

Urgent sucking

Retreating and

Lunging

That never stops

Bound to its constant action

Slave-like

Yet lording over

Its often

Ignorant subjects

And dreamy admirers

This sea will be heard

And I will listen.

Elizabeth Cummings

 

Legacy by Elizabeth Cummings

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Legacy

The dawn striped red across the sky
When standing still we gazed upon the sea
Breathing in the silence drawing near
As patriotic flags flapped in the wind
We prayed and thought about this legacy.
Our minds dwelling on the many and the many more
Who gave their lives too soon in all those wars
And their aching families who mourn them yet
And the countries whose pride they to death held dear.
When bearing death, their legacy they gave.

The talking and the praying goes on
The hymns that some still know
And sing in quivering tone and tune
In time as the quiet comes and goes
About this legacy and so a unified conscience grows.

Now the wreaths are being laid down
Beside the twin flag poles
Names are called with due respect

And whilst we hear “the Last Post” played.
We reflect on how their loss to us our freedom gave

When will we know when we have learnt
Through all those lessons that war taught

And whilst we are stirred by native spirit

To all rise to praise the strong and dead
We sing our half-forgotten anthems with our coy pride

 

As the crowds now make their way

And file past the decorated stones
That mark the lives of those unknown

Whose legacy only our little lives do show
And whose coldness hold warm the hearts of all those left.

 

Should we not find some better thing

Some meaning for ourselves

Some way to comprehend this gift, this loss

To ask ourselves what bleeding heart, what weeping soul

Can immortalise this bloody legacy.

 

So take up your arms and leave your soul

To mourn on what was lost

For these memories of the dead will not bring back

Nor lay to rest the passion and the harm

That simmers in these hearts of the mournful young

 

They will learn in their own time

What it is that harms a man

But if there be but one sole prayer

That we should chant in eternal unison

Be it that this day shall be their legacy for peace.

 

Elizabeth Cummings