Poetry Friday: Elephant
I woke up this morning with the words of one of my poems going through my head. Why this one? I don’t know. Maybe I was dreaming about elephants, or maybe an elephant was dreaming about me. Who knows?
Anyway, since it’s Poetry Friday, I thought I’d share the opening of the poem:
Elephant
Elephant is stomping;
He is stomping and he’s clomping
He is stomping, clomping, bomping
And he’s scaring the poor…
Lion.
Lion he is roaring
He is roaring and he’s pawing
He is roaring, pawing, jawing
And he’s scaring the poor…
Bear.
Bear he is growling
He is growling and he’s howling
He is growling, howling, yowling
And he’s scaring the poor…
Hmm. What is the bear scaring? You can read the rest of the poem here, in the sample pages from my book Assembly.
If you haven’t guessed from these opening stanzas, Elephant is a circular story – one action provokes another, which in turn creates another – but, in the end, we finish up back where we started. My favourite circular story is also about elephants, and is called The King, the Mice and The Cheese. 
I have always been fascinated by these stories but Elephant is the only one I’ve managed to write to publishable standard.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy it on this Poetry Friday and that you then head off to see the other Poetry Friday posts, hosted this week by My Juicy Little Universe.
Have a great Friday!
Poetry Friday And Bookshops
Today is Poetry Friday, and tomorrow is National Bookshop Day and these two things celebrate two of my very favourite things.
This week I had a day in the city, and I took a couple of hours to check out four bookshops. On a personal note I was delighted that three of them had Fly-In Fly-Out Dad, displayed face out (and multiple copies, too).
At Kaleido Books, Perth Train Station
The fourth didn’t, but had two of my other bookbabies, so that was wonderful, too.
At the State Library Bookshop. they had Roses are Blue, too.
Anyway, I came home and I drafted this poem as a celebration of bookstores, and of their lovely staff.
A Note on Shopping
At Boffins Bookstore on William Street, Perth.
In supermarkets
people hurry
looking at lists
racing up and down aisles
or blocking them
to chat
‘Dreadful news.’
‘Had her baby’
‘Did you hear?’
In hardware stores
there are dusty aisles
bored looking
people who are NOT the ones
buying tools
and the staff never look
as happy
as they do
on those advertisements.
In bookshops though
there is
that new book smell
of unearthed treasures
awed hush
of discovery
excited squeals
and gasps
(not just
In the kids’ section)
and staff
who are happy
to come to work.
(Poem copyright Sally Murphy, 2015)
If you are a bookseller, have a wonderful Bookshop Day tomorrow. Thank you for making the world a better place. And if you are a reader, why not take the time to visit your local bookshop.
And today, enjoy Poetry Friday. The roundup this week is at The Opposite of Indifference.
Poetry Friday: Teachers
It’s Poetry Friday and this week I have been thinking about teachers, partly because I am always asked about which parts of my own life appear in my books, and also partly because I saw this amazing tribute to a teacher online, which made me weep.
Amazing, huh?
Anyway, as a result of this introspection, I’ve started blogging about the teacher characters in my various books – yesterday I posted about Stanley and Elizabeth in 1915, and over the next few weeks I am going to post about several of my other teacher characters. So, today I went looking for poems about teachers.
In Pearl Verses the World, Pearl has a bit of an up and down relationship with her teacher, Miss Bruff. She even writes a poem about her:
A teacher known as Bruff
Was very, very gruff.
She preached and she taught
Much more than she ought
Till the class had had more than enough.
Poor Miss Bruff! The good news is, by the end of the book, Pearl has a new understanding of Miss Bruff (who, incidentally, I’ll be blogging more about on Sunday).
One of my favourite poems about teachers is Taylor Mali’s poem, which you may have come across before. It begins:
What Teachers Make
by Taylor Mali
He says the problem with teachers is
What’s a kid going to learn
from someone who decided his best option in life
was to become a teacher?
You can read the whole poem on Mali’s website here or, you can see his performance here:
Teachers do make a difference. Thanks Taylor Mali – and thanks Mr Tamatea who was such an amazing teacher that 1700 students turned out to honour him. And thanks to the teachers who populate so many of my stories and do their best to guide my young characters, to cheer them on and to just teach them.
Have a great Poetry Friday. The roundup this week is at Keri Recommends.
A Photo Haiku
This spider gave me a fright today, as I tried to hang out the washing. It’s a golden orb. Harmless, but still scared me. Later, though, it inspired a haiku.
Poetry Friday: Ducks
Among the other wildlife that abounds in my suburb, there are many many ducks. I love seeing them on my walks, and out my front window, though I’m less keen on seeing them when I’m driving. I have to admit it puzzles me that they insist on walking on roads, when they could fly! Fortunately, most drivers slow down and give them to cross.
Anyway, because it’s Poetry Friday, and because I’ve been thinking a lot about these ducks, here’s a favourite duck poem, from Ogden Nash, and a favourite duck photo that I took a while ago.
The Duck
by Ogden Nash
Behold the duck.
It does not cluck.
A cluck it lacks.
It quacks.
It is specially fond
Of a puddle or pond.
When it dines or sups,
It bottoms ups.
What I love about this poem is that, like so much of Nash’s verse, it makes me smile. The humour in the choice of rhyme, and the duck-like flow of the short sharp lines never fails to bring a grin.
Poetry Friday today is hosted at The Logonauts. There you will find links to lots of other poetry goodness.
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