Lace maker
Toils secretly
Tucked out of sight;
Creates ornate
Patterns
Until they’re just right.
Delicate, intricate
Handiwork done
Designer departs
To start
The next one.
Serrates, decorates
All my plants in this way.
I confess
I’m impressed
At this leaf lace display.
Humungous Fungus is among us
And it’s rather smelly.
It slowly creeps between your toes
Then right up to your belly.
It can be blue but when it’s pink
It gives off such an awful stink.
Sometimes it floats down in the breeze
And leaves great blobs on both your knees.
When it sparkles like a fairy
Then you must be very wary.
If it waves its magic wand
You’ll smell like slime from next door’s pond.
Beware if Fungus goes to school
It doesn’t care who looks a fool.
Your teacher might get quite a shock
If Fungus hides inside his sock.
If poor Grandma while she’s sitting
Concentrating on her knitting
Notices a sudden pull
It’s Fungus climbing up her wool.
Even Mum must be quite careful
She might cop a blobby hair full
If she happens to be shopping
Right where Fungus slime is dropping.
Family pets should run and hide
‘Cos Fungus loves to slip and slide
Into kennels, baskets, cages
Sending critters into rages.
But Fungus loathes a water spray
So get yourself one right away
And squirt that fiend with all your might
You’ll be a hero overnight.
One little raindrop
Arrives on my nose
Dangles a moment
Then splashes my toes
Slides down my pinkie
Lands on the grass
Washes a blade so
It glimmers like glass
One little raindrop
Joins with its mates
A cackling creek
That skitters and skates
On through the forests
And meadows it snakes
Merges with rivers
That pour into lakes
One little raindrop
Drawn out to sea
Plays with the dolphins
A long way from me
Out comes the sunshine
Blazing and high
Hauls up that raindrop
Far into the sky
One little raindrop
Now it’s a cloud
Here is the thunder
Looming and loud
Quick! Run for shelter
Before the storm blows
As one little raindrop
Arrives on my nose
I think about kids in Kazakhstan
Siberia, Finland, Tajikistan
Of things that I can see and do
Things that those kids never can.
Cranking, crashing, curling, waves
Green and glassy gurgling waves
Pounding and pumping
Thumping and dumping
Hammering and hissing hollow caves
A monstrous rising swell
Throws barrels straight from hell
To bounce and duck and race
Screaming down the face
To win and ring that bell
And when the sea breeze dies
Surfers one by one
Raise their heads and shade their eyes
To watch a golden stairway climb
Up to the setting sun
But then I think of a different fate
To see a sparkling crystal tree
To slip and slide and glide and skate
Over an icy moonlit lake
Think how awesome that would be
A pearly cluster of
tiny jewels,
part buried,
unhurried,
waiting
for your armour
to form.
Be cautious tiny spirals,
your eyes on stalks.
Stay in the low light
and be nervous of the night.
Listen for the ripple of rats
who may see your silver trail
and lick their lips.
Stay safe in the leaf litter
little ones,
small saviours of our ecosystems.
Your ancestors shared their world
with dinosaurs.
Please show us how to share.
Pat says: I’m fascinated by snails and sad to discover that more species of snail have become extinct in recent years than any other animal.
If a rosebud could talk,
Would it hum like the bees?
Or would the petals soft whisper, be lost to the breeze.
If a seashell could talk,
Would it crash like a wave?
Telling off all the mermaids, who didn’t behave.
If a feather could talk,
Would it sing through the night?
Calling out to the bird, who had lost it in flight.
If I could talk to them all
Then so quiet I’d stay,
For if we would just listen, imagine what they might say.
Sioban says: When I looked at this prompt I originally pondered the connection to each other – nature. Then, what do these things symbolise? What do they ‘say to me’? Then I thought what would they SAY to me and that led to this.
Australian Children’s Poetry Website 