I'm Sally Murphy, an Australian author of over 50 children's books. You'll find bits of me buried somewhere in every one of my books. I love reading, writing, and speaking about reading and writing and I especially love poetry and verse novels.
View my books or hire me to speak at your school, festival, or writers group.
Continuing my Poetry Month posts, here’s one about the kookaburras that visited my backyard one quiet (till then) afternoon a few years back>
Noisy Guests 
What’s that ruckus
in my yard?
A feathered trio
laughing hard.
What’s that rumpus
I can hear?
They’re carolling
that rain is near.
What’s that riot
on my fence?
Kookaburras
making sense!
Noisy Guests was first published in Picture Perfect Poetry, an ekphrastic poetry anthology selected by Carol Labuzatta. 
I discovered back when I was completing my Doctoral thesis, that while most people have opinions about poetry, few people can neatly define what it is. So, I decided, the easiest way for me to define it was with this poem:
A Poem
A poem
is a whole lot of words
a plethora of words
a smattering, a scattering
a shattering of words
thrown on a page
in carefully created
chaos
to make you wonder.
(Copyright Sally Murphy 2016).
Later, when I wrote Poetry for Pleasure and Purpose, I still couldn’t find a better
definition, so I put the poem in there as well, along with a shape poem about how poetry makes me feel. This poem had first appeared here on my blog way back in 2014, looking like this:
Poetree
has lots of branches
goes out on limbs
takes lots of chances.
Leaves you breathless
when you twig
the poet’s skill
(it’s quite a gig!)
It boughs to nature
oftentimes
leaves you marvelling
at its rhymes.
Grows on you
after a while.
Poetree
you make me smile
(Copyright Sally Murphy 2014).
(You’ll be pleased to know that the amateur drawing I did was replaced in the book by a professionally made one).
While these two poems are different, I think they highlight the two things which, for me, are key in good poetry – the ability to make the reader marvel or wonder at something, and the ability to make the reader feel something.
I have always loved receiving mail – the real kind, written by a friend, stamped and addressed and, after journeying across the country or across the world, or even just across the town, arriving in my letter box.
These days I don’t receive (or send) a lot – so many rapid means of communication, and so many competing commitments and distractions. But, every now and then a real live letter arrives in my mail box and, when it does, it makes me smile.
My gorgeous friend Jan sent me such a letter last week. A ‘thinking of you’ type letter which was just what I needed in the midst of a downish kind of day.
That made me think of this poem I wrote a while back and, because it’s poetry month, I’m sharing it here, in honour of Jan.
Mail
When Mum was little
people wrote letters
to each other
to say hello
or share their news
or say happy birthday.
Letters were delivered
by the postman
days or even weeks
after they were written.
Nowadays
people send
texts or emails
that come straight away
and the postie
mostly just brings bills.
August is Poetry Month and across the month I am going to share poems, thoughts about poetry, recommendations for poetry and more.
To get started I did an ‘influencer’ reel on Instagram today where I ‘unboxed’ poetry. You can see it here:
View this post on Instagram
So I’m not exactly an influencer and I know unboxing is usually for stuff that’s just arrived in the mail, but I had a box and a head full of ideas, and away I went. The point was (is) to remind you that poetry comes in many forms and formats and that, no matter your age (or for educators, what year level you are teaching), there is poetry out there for you to read.
Speaking of poetry, last week I teamed up with Rebecca Newman and Briony Stewart and visited five bookshops across Perth to sign copies of If I Could Eat the Stars – our brand new poetry anthology. So, if you are in Perth, and need more poetry for Poetry Month, you might just find a signed copy at one of these stores: Paperbird Books (Fremantle) , Open Book (Mosman Park), Boundless Books (Leederville), Dymocks Subiaco or Beaufort Street Books. And, if you can’t get to one of those stores, head to your nearest bookstore and ask for it. It may not be triple signed, but it will still be filled with poems from an array of talented poets.
Another month over, and another glimpse at what I read this month. 10 books, mostly for children (of course!)
This brings my total for the year to 63, a lot fewer than in previous years, but I’m happy with the quality and have more reading ahead. I’d love to hear what you’ve been reading.
June was a busy – and hard – month, with the loss of by beautiful Mum, who gave me my love of reading and writing. I may write more about this but, for now, thanks Mum for that great gift, which now more than ever helps me navigate life.
Here’s what I read in June:
1. Kid, by Peter Carnavas (UQP, 2026). Oh wow. I love this. Kid is cute, brave and surrounded by unlikely friends.
2.At the Pond, by David Elliott and Amy-Schimler-Safford (Candlewick, 2022). This is a lovely little poetry collection with each poem focussing on a different pond resident while also tracing the day from dawn until night.
3.The River That Brings Us Life, by Sarah Ang (WS Education, 2022). I was lucky enough to be gifted this book by Sarah, the very talented creator behind this important book which tells the story of the Singapore River which, once pristine, became increasingly polluted until the 1980s when a big clean up began and restored it to its beauty and source of life.
4. Out & about in Singapore, by Melanie Lee & William Sim (Marshall Cavendish, 2020). Another book gifted to me when I was in Singapore for the AFCC. I love that this has insights to lots of familiar parts of Singapore, and also introduces me to new ones, making me want to go back there. Soon.
5. The Midlands, Kate Gordon (Riveted Press, 2026). Kate Gordon is one of my favourite writers for young people, and this latest did not disappoint. Set in the midst of the Great War, but not a story about war it is, instead, a story about siblings and families and loss and so much more. Beautiful.
That brings my total for the year to 53, and with half the year still to come, lots more reading ahead.