A St Andrew’s Day Feast by James Aitchison

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Cullen skink and haggis,

fresh scallops and much more,

Stornoway Black Pudding,

we’ll eat them, shore to shore.

St Andrew’s Day is our day,

we’ll feast and dance till late,

a legend of a thousand years 

is ours to celebrate.

Teacher’s note: November 30th celebrates St Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland, although he never set foot in the country.  A Galilean fisherman, he was the first Christian disciple, St Peter’s brother, and an early martyr.  According to legend, his bones were brought to Scotland for safe keeping by a monk, and later vanished into the mists of time.  Scotland’s national flag is St Andrew’s Saltire Cross.  (Cullen skink is a delicious creamy seafood soup, a true Scottish delicacy!)

Photo from Pexels by Engin Akyurt

Choose Kindness by Linda Davidson

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Let’s create a kinder world
One where love, doesn’t need to be earned.
Where smiling, helping, joy and laughter
Are things all of us chase after.

Offer to make Grandad a cup of tea.
He might be feeling quite lonely.
Your presence will bring love to his day
And improve his mood as he watches you play.

How about a smile for someone new?
You just don’t know what they’re going through.
Your kindness may fade their worries away,
And give them hope to enjoy their day.

What about picking your mum a flower?
To show her kindness has special power.
She’ll look at you with adoration in her eyes.
You’ll both be better off – you will realise.

It’s quite easy really to show compassion and be kind.
I believe it’s the way that we’ve been designed.
So have a go at finding a creative way,
To show someone kindness on your travels today.

Photo from Pexels by Lisa Fotios

It’s November Already!

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Where has the year gone! Only two months to go and we’ll be in 2025. So many great poems and wonderful things have been celebrated already this year in both prose and rhyme. So for the month of November let’s focus on ‘The Race That Stops A Nation’ – The Melbourne Cup, Remembrance Day, World Kindness Day, Thanksgiving and St Andrew’s Day. I am also going to celebrate a day that caught my eye – National Chicken Soup for the Soul Day on November 12th. Of course you are welcome to send in poems about other events or ideas that you’d like to highlight.

Send your poems to ozchildrenspoetry@gmail.com and if you are sending an image to accompany your work, please remember to include the full URL or image attribution so it can be added as a link below the image.

Image attributions: Image 1 Image 2 Image 3 Image 4 Image 5 Image 6