If you’ve been dropping in regularly then you’ll know that all month I’ve been hosting visting bloggers who have been dropping in to help me celebrate the release of Toppling by telling me (and you) what it is that they like about chidlren’s poetry. Please welcome today Jackie Hosking, poet, chidlren’s writer and editor of the Pass It On newsletter. Welcome Jackie.

Why I like poetry.

I’ve always liked white space.

I’ve found, over time, that I am more likely to read a thing if there is less of it. This is not to say that I don’t enjoy reading novels, because I do, but I definitely enjoy reading pages that are broken up into lots of paragraphs more than pages that look like slabs of ants fighting for a parking space. With this in mind, as a reader, the verse novel suits me very well. As a writer, on the other hand, I find the verse novel to be somewhat tricky because I like to write in rhyme. It seems, for me that I am better at novel verse, than I am at verse novels, so thank goodness for authors like Sally Murphy who are able to write them for me.

Pearl Verses the World is the fifth verse novel that I’ve read and I loved it. I loved that Pearl preferred not to write in rhyme because life is not all hats and cats. (By the way I’ve written a couple of rhyming poems about cats but none about hats so thanks for that pearl, Pearl – I’ll get right onto it.) Did you notice my use of humour just then? It was very subtle but I think you’ll agree that it was definitely there. Sally uses Pearl’s aversion to rhyme as a way to add some comic relief to what is a very serious story and I think that this is probably key. While rhyming poetry can be a tool to express ideas of a serious nature, many of my poems aren’t funny at all, free verse tends to lend itself to such matters in a smoother fashion.

Toppling, Sally’s second verse novel published by Walker Books, tells another serious story. It’s an important book because illness does not just occur in an adult world. Writing such a story as a verse novel, with plenty of white space, allows the reader to take lots of breaths allowing the story to be delivered gently, like a lullaby.

I admire writers of verse novels because of their ability to pare down story to its essential elements. Rhymers do this too but in a more ordered fashion and such is the beauty of verse, free or otherwise – the VERSEatility of it all.

Thanks Sally for allowing me to share why I like poetry with your readers and for saving me the trouble of trying to write a verse novel of my own, thus giving me the freedom to write another rhyming poem about cats…

This one’s called – Bedraggled

A paw in a puddle

A cat in a muddle

She tiptoes in vain

to get out of the rain

And howls at the door

to loudly complain

Wet to the skin

Looking comically thin

We fluff her and puff her

and wrap her in towels

ignoring her howls as

she wriggles and squirms

we each take our turn

to ensure that her fur

is as soft as her purr

~~~~

And if you have a children’s rhyming poem or story that just won’t behave itself, you can contact Jackie’s rhyming manuscript editing service via her blog http://www.jackiehoskingpio.wordpress.com/

Thanks Sally!

Jackie Hosking

Editor/Compiler “PASS IT ON”

http://www.jackiehoskingpio.wordpress.com/

www.versatilityrhymeandrhythm.blogspot.com/

http://www.cbishowcase.blogspot.com/

Thanks for that jackie. I love your poem – and laughed at your jokes, too!