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Sally Murphy, Australian author

Poetry Friday: The Apostrophiser

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Welcome to Poetry Friday. I’ve had a busy week this week, including a lovely visit to Helena College in Darlington, my first school visit for the term. The year ones and twos were very curious when I told them I was officially Doctor Murphy, and amused when I told them I’m a Doctor of Poetry  (weeeeell, it’s complicated to explain that I’m technically a Doctor of Philosophy, but that my topic was children’s poetry).  The rest of the week I’ve been busy with my university job and also preparing for my upcoming trip to Vietnam.

In all this busyness, I wasn’t quite sure what I would share for Poetry Friday. But, as often happens, a poem idea presented itself to me, this time as I muttered to myself about yet another misplaced apostrophe on a sign I read. As I muttered and grumbled to myself – and wished I could reach the sign to correct it – I realised that there was a poem just waiting to be written. So, instead of defacing the sign, I came home and drafted this little offering. I do feel better now, but can’t vow not to keep apostrophising (or de-apostrophising) when the need arises.

Image from clipart-library.com

The Apostrophiser  

She could never ever stand to see

A misplaced, misused apostrophe.

Hanging somewhere that it shouldn’t

Trying to do that which it couldn’t

 

To see this item thus abused

By a punctuator so confused

Left her feeling rather sad

Or, oftentimes, a little mad

 

Her editing hand would start to itch

An overwhelming symptom which

Would see her reaching for a pen

And correcting errors again and again

 

On pamphlets, posters, leaflets, signs

Apostrophes are everywhere!

Anything with errors in its lines

In menus, notes home, emails, books

Not caring if she garnered looks

 

From embarrassed kids, or passers by

Or angry owners who wondered why

She couldn’t let the errors rest

Instead of fixing them with zest

 

But her red pen was always ready

Her apostrophising hand  ever steady

Ridding the world, one at a time

Of dastardly apostrophe crime.

 

(Copyright Sally Murphy, 2018)

 

Today’s Poetry Friday roundup is at Reading to the Core, where you will find links to lots of other poetry goodness.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry Friday: Too Many Books!

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What I love about Poetry Friday is that bloggers from all over the world share their favourite poems and poets each week. What I am challenged about each Poetry Friday is the temptation to buy more poetry books, as my fellow Poetry Friday-ers give tantalising glimpses into collections, anthologies and verse novels that I haven’t yet read. And of course, I can rarely make it through a Poetry Friday without buying a new book or at the very least adding several to my wish list.

Of course, it’s a nice problem to have, but  my house is already overflowing with books, so each new book adds to the unending problem of where to shelve them and how to keep track of them.  But this week that problem lead to something else: a new poem about, of course, books.

Too Many Books

by Sally Murphy

“Too many books?

Too Many books?

One can never have too many books,” she said

And just to be sure

She added one more

To the teetering pile by her bed.

 

“Too many books?

Too Many books?

One can never have too many books!” she cried

As she purchased ten more

From her favourite store

Staggering home  with bookwormish pride.

 

“Too many books?

Too Many books?

One can never have too many books,” she stated

Cramming case after case

Filling every space

With books that she shelved, stacked and crated.

 

“Too many books?

Too Many books?

One can never have too many books!”  she boomed

Till  her house overflowed

And she finally knowed

That her book collection days were

.

.

.

.

.

On hold till she purchased a bigger house.

(And her rhyme pattern was doomed).

Poem copyright Sally Murphy, 2018

 

Have a great Poetry Friday. Today’s roundup (where you can find plenty of  poetry goodness) is hosted by  Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe. I’m off to see what my poetry friends have been up to and buy more books. 

 

 

Poetry Friday: A Shelly Monogram

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It’s Poetry Friday and, after a long, unscheduled absence I am delighted to be back posting a little something – an impromptu poem, written in my head on my morning walk yesterday after I snapped a photo of  something I found on the beach.

See, when I spotted a curly squiggly piece of shell (or coral? I have never quite figure out what makes these squiggles), I stopped to take a picture – then realised that it looked remarkably like a letter S. And, since everything is about me, I decided it was an S for Sally;  but as I walked along, I started thinking about all the other things at the beach that started with S. And, by the time I got to the stairs, a poem had started to form. Which was wonderful, because not only did I have little poem to go with my photo, but I had something to post in time for Poetry Friday. And here it is:

Have a great Poetry Friday. I’m off to check out what my Poetry Friday friends have been up to this week. Can’t wait to catch up with them! You can, too, by visiting the Poetry Friday roundup, which this week is hosted by the team at the Poetry for Children blog, who are celebrating a Great Morning.

 

 

Poetry Friday Roundup, and Some Terse Verse

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Welcome to Poetry Friday. I am really excited (and also slightly nervous) because, for the first time ever, I am hosting the Poetry Friday round up here on my blog.  What does that mean? It means that other poetry enthusiasts from around the blogosphere will drop in here over the course of today and leave their links  at the end of this post. You can then click through on each link and see ALL the poetry goodness on offer.

I mentioned being nervous about hosting (because I do like to do things right, and this is, as I said, my first time). I was also pretty nervous earlier this week, because I had to go to the dentist and get started on a root canal, something I had not been looking forward to, but which was necessary to get me out of the pain I was in.

The dentist was lovely, and tried hard to keep me calm and as comfortable as was possible while he was needling and drilling and prodding and whatever else he was doing. Me? I decided I would keep my mind busy with thoughts of anything other than what was happening in my mouth.

Maybe I could count backwards from a hundred?  Nope. I kept losing count.

Maybe I could recite a poem in my head?  Nope. My mind was blank.

Maybe I could make up a poem? Noooope. Actually, yes!    But it would have to be a short one.

Haiku? Limerick? Ooooh. I had it! Terse Verse. Seemed to match both my mood (definitely terse) and the length of my concentration. My mind got very busy very quickly and, before I knew it I had  ideas filling my mind (oooh, there’s a dental play on words), and had (almost) forgotten what the dentist was doing to me.

Almost, because unbeknownst to him, he was inspiring the verses. Afterwards, I couldn’t wait to get home and jot down what I’d come up with. So, here you have it, a series of Terse Verse in honour of my dentist:

To the Dentist Asking Me Questions While He Probes My Mouth

Mmmmfff grmmmmmf

 

To the Dentist Telling Me this is Going to Sting

No Joke, Poke

 

To the Dentist Making My Skull Vibrate With the Drill

Drilling’s Killing!

 

To the Dentist Telling Me I’m Doing Reaaaally Well

Why Cry?

 

To the Dentist Telling Me He’ll See Me Next Week for Another Round of Treatment

Great, mate!

(Insert sarcasm in the first word of that one!)

 

Goes to show you can write poetry about anything, anywhere.  There is a form for every occasion, too.

If you are new to Terse Verse, my efforts might give you the idea – but if not, it’s simple. A Terse Verse has a generally quite long title (sometimes posed as a question), and then uses as few as two rhyming words  to sum up the sentiment, or answer the question. Does it have to be as negative as mine? No And, just to prove that here’s a happier one

To the  Snail I Met on My Morning Walk:

Swell shell!

Have you ever tried to write terse verse? Would love to see what you come up with. In the meantime, if you have a poetry post please share it in the Mr Linky below, and, whether you do or not, click through to see what my Poetry Friday friends are up to.

To My Friends on Poetry Friday

Rhyme time!

 

(All verses copyright Sally Murphy, 2018)

 

Poetry Friday: Back to School

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Here in Australia the long summer holidays are coming to an end, and children and teachers are heading back to the classroom. So, I thought it might be nice to have a school themed post for Poetry Friday. A search through my poetry files found this one, written a few years ago (for the #postitnotepoetry challenge on Twitter), and written at a time when I still had school aged children:

Back to School

Six weeks ago                     Bug

I breathed a sigh

relieved

that school was over for the year.

Today

I sigh once more

relieved the holidays

have ended.

(Copyright Sally Murphy)

This year is the first year in 26 years that I do not have one or more children heading back to school, and so this year my feelings are a bit different. But the feeling  I had every summer when I had school age children was pretty consistent – relieved at the start that the end-of-year scurry was over, and that we would have a break from routine, and time at home, and maybe a holiday somewhere; then, at the end of the holidays, a feeling of relief that we  would all get back into a regular routine again.  Though, if I’m honest, there was another feeling, one that is also here this year: the feeling that time moves just too quickly, and my babies were (are) growing up so fast!

This second one was also written a while back and, I promise, is very tongue-in-cheek,and not autobiographical.

I Hate It!

I hate school!

The kids are mean.

The classroom smells funny.

The lessons are hard

and recess is too noisy

We have to do sport

and the kids laugh

when I drop the ball.

The lunch orders are always cold

or soggy

or both

and the toilets

are leaky

and stinky.

I hate school

and I wish I could stay home

but the principal says

teachers should show up for work.

(Copyright Sally Murphy)

This of course sent me looking to see if I had a more positive poem to share. Surely not all my poems about school are negative? After all, I loved school when I was a child, so much so that I became a teacher and still spend lots of my working life in schools. Luckily, I found this one:

Preschool

We come each dayGnomes

We sing.

We play.

 

We laugh.

We draw.

We laugh some more.

 

We take our turn.

We read.

We learn.

 

We listen.

We read.

We read read read.

 

We have such fun.

We jump.

We run.

 

We clap.

We dance.

And home we prance.

(Copyright Sally Murphy)

Ahhh preschool (or kinder, kindy, or prep, depending where you live!). But what about older kids?  I had to wrack my brains for this, but then I remembered my verse novels and, my friend John (from Toppling) came through with his thoughts:

It’s not great having to head back to school    

after two weeks of holidays

but it’s cool being back with the gang.

Being in a group like ours

is great.

At recess

and lunch

and in class

you always have someone to sit with

or talk to

or just to hang out with.

You always get chosen for a team

during sport

and you have people

who remind you about homework

and notes

and even training after school.

Miss Timms calls us “the gigglers”

because on her first day

we couldn’t stop laughing.

It’s not a cool name

for a group of Year Six boys

but it sounds okay when Miss Timms says it.

(Copyright Sally Murphy)

Here’s to the Miss Timmses of the world, who are going to make kids giggle, and help them learn this year. And here’s to the Johns who can find the good things about school – and here’s too, to the kids, who maybe aren’t looking forward to school. I hope this is the year it gets easier for you! As for me, I’m glad school is going back because soon I will be out visiting schools and spreading a joy of reading and writing. My favourite part of my job!

 

Have a great Friday. The Poetry Friday roundup is being hosted by  Carol at Beyond Literacy Link.

Poetry Friday: Three Poems from the Beach

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It’s summer in my part of the world but most of my Poetry Friday friends are in the northern hemisphere,and so in the midst of winter. Last Friday there was a plethora of posts filled with snow and ice so, when I sat down to prepare my post for today, I thought it might be nice to warm my northern friends with some summer pictures and some poems from the beach.

This first one was written in January last year, and posted on the Poetry Tag blog I share with my friend Rebecca. In Poetry Tag we take turns challenging each other to write a poem incorporating whichever words we choose.Rebecca gave me: lazy, myself, print,  thousand and smell. At the time I was in the midst of a lazy summer, so that first word took me straight to the beach.

Summertime

On the beach   

I’m feeling lazy

Smell of sunscreen

Fills the air.

 

A thousand bushflies

Drive me crazy

As I make  my way

Down there.

 

I plunge myself

In cooling ocean

Feel inertia

Wash away.

 

Flies have vanished

No devotion

To watery fun

They’d rather stay

 

Beachside where they’ll

Leave their print

On backs of sunsoaked

Sandbound teens

 

Who’ve left the water

For a stint

Of games, or food,

Or magazines.

(Copyright Sally Murphy)

This next poem is new. I liked playing with short lines for the Flourish poem I shared last Friday,  so wanted to experiment with it again for this week’s topic. It seemed to fit with the playfulness  of a day at the beach.

At the Beach

 

There’s sand

and shells

and salty

smells

 

There’s water

too

so much

to do

 

Like splish

and splosh

swim

and wash

 

Build castles

moats

frolic

float

 

Throw balls

and play

stay

all day

 

Then say

goodbye

with happy

sigh.

(Copyright Sally Murphy)

This third poem is one I’ve shared before. I like it because it captures one of my favourite things to do at the beach- simply walk, with my toes in the water. I’m hoping to make some more poem videos this year,since it’s been a while since I made one.

I hope, Northern hemisphere friends, that all this beachyness  makes you warm rather than envious. I’m sending you as much virtual warmth as I can muster.

 

Today’s Poetry Friday roundup is hosted by  Jan at Bookseed Studio.