Soup Blog Poetry Festival

Time for a poem: Seal Lullaby

Posted on July 22, 2013July 21, 2013 by Alphabet Soup

Seal Lullaby by Rudyard Kipling

Oh! hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us
And black are the waters that sparkled so green.
The moon, o’er the combers, looks downward to find us
At rest in the hollows that rustle between.

—
Where billow meets billow, there soft be thy pillow.
Oh, weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease!
The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee
Asleep in the arms of the slow-swinging seas.

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We’re sharing this poem as part of the Soup Blog Poetry Festival — until the end of August we’ll be posting poems, interviews with children’s poets, tips for reading and writing poetry, and Poetry Prescriptions (poetry is good for the soul!).

Soup Blog Poetry Festival

Tuesday Challenge – a 5-senses poem

Posted on July 16, 2013July 11, 2013 by Alphabet Soup

Today’s challenge is to write a 5-line poem using your five senses — sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch. You might like to write a poem describing apples, a season, or your favourite colour (or your least favourite colour!).

—

Here’s one our editor (Rebecca) wrote:

Autumn is orange, red and brown

It sounds like rice bubbles for breakfast

It tastes like apple pie

It smells like freshly dug earth

It feels like skipping into the wind

Perhaps you could write a 5-senses poem about a feeling or an idea. (Check out some interesting Senses Poems here.)

We’d love to read your 5-senses poems — if it’s OK with your parents or teacher, post yours in the comments below!

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Visiting poet: Jackie Hosking

Posted on July 11, 2013July 20, 2013 by Alphabet Soup

Today we welcome Jackie Hosking who is visiting as part of the Soup Blog Poetry Festival. We’re big fans of Jackie’s poetry and you might remember reading some of her poems in Alphabet Soup magazine — like ‘Paperwork’, ‘The Moon’, ‘Butterfly Kisses’, and ‘I Wish I Were a Dragon’.

—

I wrote my first poem when I was 17 years old. It was called ‘Consequence’, a rhyming nonsense poem that made the use of opposites. It began …

A Christmas tree stood on the beach

Within my grasp but out of reach

What sort of poetry do you like writing?

Best of all I like writing rhyming and rhythmical poetry. I’ve tried to write free verse poems and I’ve enjoyed the process but rhyme and meter suit me best of all.

What sort of poetry do you like reading?

I like to ready any poems that make me go aaaahhhhh …

Where could a reader find your poetry?

My poetry has been published in magazines, anthologies, websites, on a train, educational texts and next year in a picture book titled The Croc and the Platypus.

You can read some more of my poems on my blog.

How often do you write?

Not as often as I should probably — but when I do I’m so absorbed that many hours can pass without me realising it. It’s really exciting when this happens.

Do you prefer to write with a pen and paper or straight onto the computer?

Straight onto the computer, though I will record ideas if I’m out on a walk with no computer in site. Love my phone for this!

Your number one tip for budding poets?

Write about what moves YOU. There is nothing more compelling than reading a piece that was written with passion.

Jackie’s Poetry Prescription:

IF YOU’RE HAVING A GRUMPY DAY — read the following poem! (I wrote ‘The Quarrel’ as it’s perfect for stamping your grumpies out.)

THE QUARREL

The giants are moaning

And mumbling and groaning

They’re grumbling with all of their might

They’re stamping and stomping

And ranting and romping

They’re all in the mood for a fight

—

The giants are raving

And whining and waving

They’re snatching the clouds; every one

They’re howling and wailing

And flapping and flailing

And heaving the clouds at the sun

—

The giants are lurching

And stumbling and searching

For weapons to settle the score

They’re ploughing and plunging

And digging and lunging

For dinosaur bones from before

—

They’re kicking and thrashing

And slicing and slashing

Electrical tension is frightening

They’re whacking and whizzing

And static is fizzing

Exploding the sky with its lightening

—

The giants are jumping

While jeering and thumping

The dinosaur bones as they plunder

And the flash in the night

Well might give you a fright

But just wait for the crack of the thunder

—

Thank you, Jackie! If you’d like to learn more about Jackie Hosking and her poetry, check out her website and this earlier post on Soup Blog.

Soup Blog Poetry Festival

Tuesday Challenge … limerick

Posted on July 9, 2013July 10, 2013 by Alphabet Soup

On Tuesdays, until the end of August, we’ll post a tiny poem challenge for you. So here’s today’s challenge!

Write your own limerick and then read it out to someone to see if you can make them laugh … [OK, groaning counts].

A limerick has five lines — three long ones and two short ones — and a particular rhythm and rhyme. Limericks are often nonsensical and funny. Do you know any? Here are two we like:

There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said ‘It is just as I feared! —
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!’

– Edward Lear

and

An ambitious young fellow named Matt
Tried to parachute using his hat.
Folks below looked so small
As he started to fall,
Then got bigger and bigger and SPLAT!

– Graham Lester

Would you like some help writing your first limerick? You’ll find some instructions here.

If you think your limerick is a humdinger, ask a parent to email it to us and we’ll post it here! (If we post your limerick, we’ll only publish your first name, age, and state – or country if you are outside Australia.)

YOUR LIMERICKS (HURRAH!)

This limerick was written for Leith’s cousin Angus’s 2nd birthday card (good idea, Leith!).

There once was a boy named Gus,

Who drove to school on a bus.

He ate all the cake,

And got a belly-ache,

And made a terrible fuss.

by Leith , age 7, QLD

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Time for a poem: Old Man Platypus

Posted on July 8, 2013July 6, 2013 by Alphabet Soup

Old Man Platypus by AB (Banjo) Paterson

Far from the trouble and toil of town,
Where the reed beds sweep and shiver,
Look at a fragment of velvet brown —
Old Man Platypus drifting down,
Drifting along the river.

And he plays and dives in the river bends
In a style that is most elusive;
With few relations and fewer friends,
For Old Man Platypus descends
From a family most exclusive.

He shares his burrow beneath the bank
With his wife and his son and daughter
At the roots of the reeds and the grasses rank;
And the bubbles show where our hero sank
To its entrance under water.
Safe in their burrow below the falls
They live in a world of wonder,
Where no one visits and no one calls,
They sleep like little brown billiard balls
With their beaks tucked neatly under.

And he talks in a deep unfriendly growl
As he goes on his journey lonely;
For he’s no relation to fish nor fowl,
Nor to bird nor beast, nor to horned owl;
In fact, he’s the one and only!

—

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Today is the first day of the Soup Blog’s Poetry Festival — until the end of August we’ll be posting poems, interviews with children’s poets, tips for reading and writing poetry, and Poetry Prescriptions.

poetry, Soup Blog Poetry Festival

Soup Blog Poetry Festival

Posted on July 5, 2013 by Alphabet Soup

Have you already been enjoying your winter school holidays? Here in WA we are JUST STARTING our school holidays this afternoon. It’s great holiday weather in Perth. As I look out my window I can see blue, blue skies.

In addition to being in a holidayish mood, I am very excited to announce that we are holding a poetry festival right here on Soup Blog. For the rest of July and all of August we will be celebrating poetry and poets. Bring all your friends! Bring your teachers! Bring your grandparents! Bring your dog!

What will be happening during our poetry festival?

I’m so glad you asked. We’ll have tips for reading poetry, we’ll be sharing some poems we love (oldies but goodies), talking to a number of Australian children’s poets about their writing, and every Tuesday we’ll offer you a tiny poem challenge. We’ll also feature Poetry Prescriptions from our visiting children’s poets — poetry is good for the soul!

When does this festival start?

On Monday 8 July 2013! Be sure to check back then. We’ll be launching the Soup Blog Poetry Festival with the very first poem we published in Alphabet Soup magazine. (I wonder if any of you can remember what it was?) On Tuesday we’ll have our first tiny poem challenge for you. And on Thursday we’ll have a first of our Australian poets visiting — Jackie Hosking.

See you then!

~ Rebecca (Soup Blog’s editor)