Tag Archives: rhyming poems

Big Bird Emu by Celia Berrell

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Big Bird Emu cannot fly.
Got long legs and big brown eyes;
slender neck and smiley beak;
stringy feathers, mega feet.
Big Bird Emu sits on nest.
Eight whole weeks, no food no rest;
nearly faint from heat and thirst;
wants those chicks to hatch out first.
Shading babies, outstretched wings,
eating grass and insect things.
Eighteen months ‘til they’re full-grown,
big enough, safe on their own.
Big Bird Emu dedicated.
Caring love for little babies.
Get too close might make him mad,
‘cos he’s their Big Bird Emu DAD!


https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/emu/390741
https://www.bushheritage.org.au/species/emu

My Hidden House by James Aitchison

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I have a hidden house

in a garden full of flowers,

and I love to sit in silence

and gaze at it for hours.

The little house was built

in the Gold Rush so I’m told,

but for me it is a treasure

worth more than any gold.

Teacher’s note: This miner’s cottage, built in 1860, is typical of many homes built in the 
Ballarat, Creswick and Clunes district during the Victorian Gold Rush.

Nice To Be A Snail by Toni Newell

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It would be nice to be a snail,

Carry my house upon my back

And leave a silver trail,

Never needing to unpack.

Out for dinner every day

No kitchen in my house

‘Cause it’s very small inside

Can’t even fit a mouse.

I’d always be close to home

Never far away

And my house I’d fully own

No mortgages to pay.

Cleaning would be a dream

Over in a blink

Giving me much more time

To play and even think.

It would be nice to be a snail

Carry my house upon my back

Never be far from home

And safe when the sky is black.

The Antarctic Beech by James Aitchison

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I wandered in a forest deep

and found this ancient tree.

Two thousand years it’s grown here;

lots more it well might see.

They said it’s called a Beech,

born in forests long ago,

before Antarctica 

had turned to ice and snow.

Teacher’s note: Lamington and Springbrook National Parks are located on the Scenic Rim of the Gold Coast hinterland.  Two hundred and twenty-five million years ago, the continents of South America, Africa, Australia and Antarctica, along with India, New Zealand, Madagascar and Arabia made up a single land mass called Gondwana.  When Gondwana broke up 120 million years ago, Australia remained attached to Antarctica. Seventy million years ago, when Antarctica was covered with rainforests, Australia separated and moved north. This Antarctic Beech has survived to this day. Sadly much of the ancient rainforest was lost to logging in the 19th Century.

Who? by Graham Seal

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Now UFOs are UAPs,

can someone please explain 

who was it who decided

UFOs must be renamed?

Of course, I do not have a clue

who might have been that author,

but I have a question for them:

what’s wrong with ‘flying saucer’?

Note: Unidentified Flying Objects, or UFOs, are now officially known as Unidentified Aerial (or Anomalous) Phenomena, or UAPs.

Message from Mr. Ostrich by James Aitchison

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“It’s wrong!  It’s wrong!”

the ostrich said.

“I never, never

bury my head!

If I did

how could I see?

You mustn’t believe

such things about me.”

Teacher’s note: Ostriches do not bury their heads in the sand.  When trouble approaches, they lie low and press their long necks to the ground.  Mostly, ostriches escape danger by running at up to 72 km/h.  The world’s heaviest bird, they are also the world’s largest, fastest flightless bird, capable of killing predators such as lions and humans with a kick.

A Bird Unique by Margaret Pearce

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Hoo hoo hoo, and he haw hay
laughed the Kooka on his way.
After him the Magpies chased
winging past in reckless haste.
What was it that the Kooka heard
to cause the Magpies get so stirred?
An ornithologist rushed to meet
a Magpie walking on two sore feet.
‘I’m scared to fly,’ the Magpie wailed.
‘They laughed at me because I failed.’
He then limped on, a bird unique,
an unhappy agoraphobic freak.

We Are The Champions by Dannielle Viera

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Some called us lost from Earth’s great zoo
Extinct beyond a doubt
But we are here to claim our prize
As champs of hiding out

Men sought us over Lord Howe Isle
(And brought their rats as well)
So we jumped ship and hid upon
A stack that spikes the swell

Beneath a tea-tree clinging to
The stark Balls Pyramid
We waited to be found by folks
Before we flipped our lid

It took some eighty years before
Two scientists arrived
But even then they couldn’t see
Our black butts had survived

That night we nosed out from our nook
To let them know we’d won
The longest game of hide-and-seek
Insects had ever run

And now we’d like our trophy, please
We phasmids are for real
If you do not acknowledge us
We’ll give you stick – so deal!

Fingers in the sky by James Aitchison

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It seems to me 

that I can see

fingers in the sky.

Cloudy fingers,

each one lingers, 

as I’m passing by.

See Salt by James Aitchison

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Have you ever seen salt

far from the sea?

Salt that’s still as salty

as salt can ever be?

It’s salt in far Lake Tyrell,

a salty lake, you see,

and tastes even saltier

than salt does from the sea.

Teacher’s note: Lake Tyrrell is a salt-encrusted depression in Victoria’s Mallee district.