The Black Pudding Hunt        by K J Walker   (Repost. Poetry For Schools)

It was during the great pork pie famine

Of nineteen seventy-one

When kids were all crying with hunger

And everyone suffered, bar none

With no cod in the chippy

We ate old kipper ties

The villagers were all hungry

And missing those water crust pies

They sent relief aid from...

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Monochrome Days: (poetry for schools)

In the '50s and early '60s

gas was still the norm

in city streets and passageways;

at home to keep us warm

And during bleak mid-winters

when people used more coal

the air was thick and foggy

and illness took its toll

Us children knew no better;

life had always been like this

sore throats and runny noses

were i...

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The Totter From Toulouse  by KJ Walker

a re-post. (Poetry for Schools)

He had ten ton of turnips

In the turn-ups of his trews

His beard was bathed in Bakelite

And hung down to his shoes

A wicked watch fob weighed his weskit

His hanky blew the blues 

He trudged from Treen to Tottenham

………. The Totter from Toulouse

He went in… the outdoor… backwards

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The Cockroach: (poetry for schools)

An elephant and a cuckoo

had been friends for many years,

then one day a cockroach

reduced them both to tears

He told them of the hardships

endured by bugs like him,

of being despised by mankind

and how he lost a limb

Being forced to live in sewers

and cellars, dark and dank

had given him rheumatism

arthritis an...

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Kevin, the Chameleon Astronaut

As he sat in his space ship

young Kevin knew that soon

he’d be the first chameleon

to walk upon the moon.

He clambered down the ladder

in his special reptile suit,

his high tech lizard helmet

and his little welly boots.

He wandered round the surface

picked up a rock or two

then Kevin came to realise

there wasn’t much to d...

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Kevin, the Chameleon Astronaut

As he sat in his space ship

young Kevin knew that soon

he’d be the first chameleon

to walk upon the moon.

He clambered down the ladder

in his special reptile suit,

his high tech lizard helmet

and his little welly boots.

He wandered round the surface

picked up a rock or two

then Kevin came to realise

there wasn’t much to d...

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‘Light is life, and life is joy’
sang merrily the choir boy
whose ruffle hung around his neck,
which yesterday was on the deck
pinned down by bullies in the yard.
His life at school was very hard.

At home the picture’s not too bright,
for mum and dad do nowt but fight
and sister’s having Conrad’s kid
whose Grandpa will be Uncle Sid.

So life is dark for choir boy James
who plays ...

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Now the mast that holds the sail,
Now the Captain of the ship
That billows on the rugged waves
‘Til teatime.

It can make a handsome man
Or a princess with a fan.
It’s a lever for a digger;
Anything!

A dagger, a bird, a plane
A rudder; never the same
Make it whatever you fancy
Like I can!

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It was blue

Cambridge blue

Bright and shiny

Almost new 

- or so it seemed to me.

Made of tin,

With me sat in

It was a racer, then a tank;

Now a dustcart emptying bins

Along our street.

It went at some speed

With pedals, or feet

And a pull of the wheel

To get round that bend

- until ……

That day when the van came

And took it away

“To ...

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The hills have masks

or at least that’s what I think dad said.

Walking the length of Warehouse Hill

you can see them over

the horizon: metal towers

with buttons of red lights

that we can see from everywhere.

We’ve got bags of

Chinese takeaway, and a free

bottle of pop because dad

told the lady it was my birthday.

I know I’ll remember this day

as long as I live,

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The coal man is here again and from the flatbed

he unloads a ton of coal with tar black hands.

Watching from the window, we hide behind the curtain

and speak softly so as not to be heard. This is our world.

And I trick you with the question of which will weigh heaviest;

coal or feathers when delivered in equal measures.

But you push me away turning both eyes toward...

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It rained forever and a day

and was freezing cold

the year you were six

and me forty two.

And it worried me sick

the thought of you;

inside forever, in bed,

not knowing what to do.

They’ll eat anything

your grandfather said,

but for two whole days

you missed your food.

And finally, unlike the sun,

cloudbursts of spots

on your nose, chin

a...

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Who would have guessed that a small tree

could be so vicious. All day you had kicked

the new football back and forth against

the gable of the red brick terrace and

not even the promise of ice cream could

coax you away, until the Blackthorn spoilt the game.

That’s when you ran back, holding the thing

with your thumb pressed white against its skin.

You begged me for some...

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I'm a hedgehog and I'm full of spikes

I live in the undergrowth 

and hate motorbikes.

I'm a hedgehog and full of fleas

but when I see a three-wheeler

I say 'God, help please!' 

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Miss Gladstone’s eyes are more severe

Than other teachers teaching here.

They swivel round then settle firm

on pupils who begin to squirm.

Like searchlights on a prison tower

Miss Gladstone’s eyes don’t look, they glower.

Not searchlights, no, more laser beams

that burn enough to make you scream.

Heads down, the class daren’t catch her eye

for fear that if they...

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Calling budding Michael Rosens

Could you write a poem for primary school children? As part of our new initiative - Marsden, the Poetry Village – we’ve inspired local primary schools to bring poetry even more into the pupils’ routine. Not that they took much persuading, as the schools we have spoken to so far are clear of the value and the fun of poetry for children. Marsden Junior School has cr...

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