I am an extraordinary dairy man,
I really give that milk a shake,
I whir it on my mixer,
I think you should partake.
I have such scrumptious flavours,
I’ll put a dob of ice-cream in,
Your taste buds will go ballistic,
Just after you begin.
There you go, drink it up,
Well, what do you think of that?
I think it tastes so very nice,
But will it make me fat?
John Williams
Farmyard Band
The cow was playing cowbells,
Giddy Goat joined in on his guitar,
The horse was hoofing bongo drums,
Animals started coming from afar.
The chicken clucked an egg out,
Pig was oinking right in time,
Duck was tinkling on her triangle
While dog was hammering on his chime.
Pussy picked up her piccolo,
Goose was flapping on his flute,
Donkey brayed on a big trombone,
It really was a farmyard hoot.
© John Williams
The Giant Hat
Wacko Jack from Ballarat
Built the most enormous hat,
Made of canvas with a great big brim,
Three storeys tall with a velvet trim.
Some dogs howled, while babies cried
When they saw Jack’s hat he wore with pride,
Old ladies gulped while others grinned,
Until one day a howling wind
Saw Jack take off, up he went,
Sailing high like a flying tent,
He yelled out loud with a face so grim,
“Next time I’ll make a smaller brim.”
That same night when it was late,
A UFO spotted above Bass Straight,
But it was only Jack still holding on
To the flying hat that’d gone so wrong.
© John Williams
Australia
An island continent down under too grand to just ignore,
A land of coastal water where sandy beaches line the shore,
Rugged range and dusty plain colliding with each other,
A land of inspiring contrast nature took its time to cover.
Green canopy of Kurrajong Tree provide jackaroos with their shade,
As they do battle with the outback where the stockmen’s legends made,
The cattle and the sheep will graze where the soil meets their needs,
But crippling droughts can catch them out as farmers plant their seeds.
Orchardists with their crops of fruit look skyward for a drink,
While sugar-cane on coastal plain provides our sweetest link,
Golden corn and ears of wheat dance round in yellow field,
The farmer working dawn to dusk to reap his vital yield.
Fire and flood can cause such havoc; there’s a harshness in our land,
But strength of character carries us through and neighbours lend a hand,
Koalas eat their gum leaves, kangaroos shy from where they’ve been,
Kookaburras laugh their loudest as platypus dips into the stream.
Gallipoli and Anzacs create fervour in our mind,
These brave young hearts that gave their lives, too many left behind,
Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House, Uluru and Barrier Reef,
All provide us with our identity, our icons and belief.
© John Williams
Attack of the Giant Dinosaur
I didn’t really mean,
To do what I have done,
I trod on a dinosaur’s tail
And now I’m on the run.
He’s about fourteen metres long
And he’s breathing down my neck,
My heart is purely throbbing
And my nerves are all a wreck.
He’s just about on top of me
His teeth about to crunch,
Oh where do you hide from a dinosaur
When you’re about to be his lunch.
“Stop playing with that lizard Tommy
And come on in for tea,”
“Ah you’d spoil any game mum
For a little boy like me.”
© John Williams
Jenolan Caves — Australia’s Underground Fairyland
The Grand Arch holds you spellbound, when first you come to look,
At the wonders of Jenolan, indeed it’s nature’s nook,
Glistening stalactites and stalagmites among beautiful canopies,
Are just below the surface of mountains dressed in trees.
Nature’s gallery of beauty is on display in limestone caves,
Twisting shawls of calcite in majestic rolling waves,
Massive growths contrast with clusters of fragile crystalline,
White, yellow, orange and reddish-brown, oh how the colours shine.
The drip-stones in the River Cave, especially the Minaret,
Show creams and whites of great delight formed by the wet,
The Giant Shawl in Mon Meg’s Chamber is tinted brownish-red,
A beautiful sheet illuminated, fit for any royal bed.
You cross two arched bridges to the Skeleton Cave display,
Aboriginal bones lay scattered by a stream that found its way,
Past the Pillar of Hercules, Jenolan’ s tallest stalagmite,
And the crystalline Bath of Venus backed by straws so very white.
Oh thank you to McKeown for the stock he stole that day,
For his catching by James Whalan led us all to this display,
Jenolan we are awed, by your caverns magically transformed,
Into an exquisite fairyland so beautifully adorned.
© John Williams
Blue Mountains Gully
Yellow crops of sandstone,
Jagged mountain peak,
Red display of waratahs,
A meandering bush creek.
White display of flannel flowers,
Bottle brush with orange cones,
Beautiful fronds of tree ferns,
Blue gums with crafted tones.
A frolicking roll of mountain mist,
An ancient windswept cave,
Green moss upon the velvet rocks,
Falling gum leaf gives a wave.
The tinkling sound of bellbirds
Run echoes round the stream,
A yellow-tailed cockatoo
Circles back to where it’s been.
The buzzing of a bush-bee
Comes from near a fallen log,
A croaking sound pervading
It’s a golden striped tree frog.
This bush display persistent,
Wallaby nibbles grass nearby,
A lyre bird shyly into view,
Kookaburras sit in branches high.
The melodic sounds continue,
Chirping birds with coloured plume,
Gorge of coolness calling,
Mountain gully, nature’s loom.
© John Williams
Australian Children’s Poetry 