Tag Archives: Katherine Gallagher

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Sun-Song

(after Charles Causley)

I am the song that lifts the sky

I am the earth that flames the fire

I am the cloud that calls the flood

I am the stream that draws the sun

I am the tide that drinks the moon

I am the air that sings the leaf

I am the bird that stirs the branch

I am the tale that flies the word

I am the note that spreads the song

 

Katherine Gallagher
  • Submitted in response to Poetry Prompt #47

poetry-prompt-47

Katherine said: Charles Causley, the Cornish poet, was  a wonderful children’s poet. His poem (that inspired my poem) is full of music.

 

Poem of the Day

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PERCY POSSUM

Percy Possum

swings his brush-tail,

leaps from roof to roof

on a goodnight-trail.

 

He hunts for insects,

a midnight feast –

if he finds some eggs,

he’ll really be pleased.

 

The night is quiet,

the stars are dim.

He wishes they’d shine

a bit brighter for him.

 

Katherine Gallagher
  • Submitted in response to Poetry Prompt #45

poetry-prompt-45

 

 

 

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Rainstorm

 

A single drop

plop, plop, plop

joining other drops     plop, plop, plop

plopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplop

into rivers, on to crops,

getting thicker, louder, quicker

in the cities on the streets

water coming down in sheets

raindrops dropping, never stopping

ad infinitum

plop, plop     plopping

© Katherine Gallagher
  • Submitted in response to Poetry Prompt #15

Poetry Prompt15 Katherine said:  The inspiration came from hearing a single drop, loud and individual, and then the gradual building into a thunderstorm and more.

Poem of the Day

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Nomad

 

A blousy tent

on a slow-go trail

 

A leathery balloon

swaying jungle-free

 

A sail-eared face

playing cascades

 

A house on stilts

trimming waves of air

 

© Katherine Gallagher

(Published in A Trunkful of Elephants, ed. Judith Nicholls, Methuen Children’s Books, 1994)

  • Submitted in response to  Prompt #31

poetry prompt #31

 

 

 

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Clown Stuff

 

“Put that cauliflower in the colander,

not on your head, you fool!

It’s no time now for climbing the ladder

to the loft. Come on down

or you’ll be late for Clown-School.”

© Katherine Gallagher

Submitted in response to Poetry Prompt #36

Poetry Prompt #36

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At the School Camp

 

In our hut, I’m first awake.

I peer through the curtains –

nothing’s stirring out there

except for three magpies and a crow

looking for their breakfast – maybe a worm

or two. Haven’t they slept? It’s only six o’clock!

Everyone in this hut is still asleep.

 

Then suddenly I see the sun

climbing, climbing, ever so slowly –

a faraway orange

that I can’t reach.

Katherine Gallagher

(Published in Read Me At School (ed Gaby Morgan, Macmillan Children’s

Books, 2009)

  • Submitted in response to Poetry Prompt #37

poetry-prompt-37

 

Katherine said: I love LOOK as a POETRY PROMPT . It reminded me of my poem AT THE SCHOOL CAMP inspired by a wonderful sunrise in a weekend camp at Axedale, near Bendigo, Victoria.

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Playing the Game

 

On match days,

I try to make sure

I play very well

and am first to score.

My team’s in blue,

the others are in grey.

 

In the heat of the minute

if I give the ball away,

it’ll be just too bad,

I won’t be picked next time;

it couldn’t be worse

if I’d committed a crime.

 

Don’t worry, Dad says,

A game’s just a game

but I’d like to be a star  ̶

maybe make my name.

Katherine Gallagher

 

  • Submitted in response to Poetry Prompt #35

Poetry Prompt #35

Katherine said:  My poem ‘Playing the Game’ is  in response to the notion of  ‘star performance’, being a star, however  briefly and so on. Especially on the sports field.

Poem of the Day

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At the dinosaur picnic

 

Dandy dinosaurs dancing

Dreamy dinosaurs drinking

Dexterous dinosaurs dinking

Dainty dinosaurs dazzling

Devilish dinosaurs diving

Dozy dinosaurs dallying

Delicate dinosaurs dawdling

Katherine Gallagher

 

  • Submitted in response to Poetry Prompt #24

Poetry Prompt #24

Riddle by Katherine Gallagher

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What goes up

and never down?

 

When you’re born,

you count me in

race me on,

only occasionally forget me.

 

When you’re old,

I’m still growing.

 

What am I?

Answer:

upsidedown

 

Katherine Gallagher

 

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A Girl’s Head

(after the poem, ‘A Boy’s Head’ by Miroslav Holub)

 

In it there is a dream

that was started

before she was born,

 

and there is a globe

with hemispheres

which shall be happy.

 

There is her own spacecraft,

a chosen dress

and pictures of her friends.

 

There are shining rings

and a maze of mirrors.

 

There is a diary

for surprise occasions.

 

There is a horse springing hooves

across the sky.

 

There is a sea

that tides and swells

and cannot be mapped.

 

There is untold hope

in that no equation exactly

fits a head.

Katherine Gallagher

(from Poetry Street 3 (Sale & Orme, 1991),

  • Submitted in response to Poetry Prompt #19

 

Poetry Prompt #18Katherine said: Looking back at Poetry Prompts, I thought about #19 with its buzz of questions. And I alighted on questions about what goes on in a girl’s head. Actually, I wrote this in response to Miroslav Holub’s poem ‘A Boy’s Head’. The thing about poetry, it usually asks more questions than it answers, but that’s useful.