We recently interviewed Lorraine Marwood about writing Celebrating Australia: A Year in Poetry. (You can WIN your very own copy of the book, too!)

To launch the book, Lorraine spent last week visiting bookish blogs. She also asked each blog host to write a poem based on a poem from her collection.

Here is Lorraine’s poem:

SEASONS — AUTUMN

Autumn is loud crushing sounds
a foot scuffing rap-tapping shuffle.
One day a light dusting
of pathway obstruction
by week’s end a whole mound
of slip, slide, crunch, crackle.

Autumn is loud splashing colours
a yellow, rust, tangerine explosion.
One day a brightness in twos, threes
of pathway palette,
by week’s end a whole Monet mosaic
of buffs, shades, tints and silhouettes.

© Lorraine Marwood

Today the Year 5 students at St Thomas’ Primary School in Claremont (WA) take up the challenge. They worked in small groups to create their poems, either using the patterning of Lorraine’s poem (find the template here), or loosely inspired by the poem.

Sit back and enjoy a poetry feast!

—

Spring Poem
by Minerva and Abbey

Spring is the chirping of the bluebirds
the gentle buzzing of the bees,
one day lush blossoms bloom,
By week’s end parks full of floral outbreak
swish, sway, tweet, twirl

Spring is the soft pastel colours
peach, moss and baby blue
One day a lavender, honeysuckle eruption
blows over the garden’s greenery,
By week’s end the radiant colours have
created a glowing canvas

—

A Day of Winter
by Yasmin

Winter is twigs snapping,
The howling of the wind
And the roar of a blazing fire.

One day there is pelting rain,
Across the Australian plains.
The smell of the soft brown earth fills the air.

A pitter patter, a splish splash,
And a clash of the mighty thunder.

The crackling of the burning logs,
The sprinkle on the roof.
And the rage of the mighty storm.

A thick mist covers the land,
And onto the window panes,
As the smoke curls from the chimney tops.

A swish, a sway, a crackle,
And a snap, goes the icy bush.

—

Wing (winter and spring crossed)
By Sophie and Amy

Winter is a loud bang of lightning
A drip drop of rain from the pipes
One day a storm accrued
In the scrapers
A mud pit
Of slip slide crash!

A dark ash grey in the sky
A livid blue and a deep muddy brown
One day spring did come
In the big city
By week’s end a rainbow of colour
Of blues, greens and browns

—

Two Sides of Summer Poem!
By Jemima

Sizzling, crackling sausages on the barbecue,
Pop fizz the icy Coke explodes as it drizzles down the can,
One day in my backyard running under the sprinklers,
Splash splosh as I dive into the cold pool,
Mangoes, oranges, and watermelon as it drips down my face,
Split, chop, squeeze, chomp
Fresh fruit salad, enjoy it, it’s not a race!

The hot sand beneath my toes,
The mums having a cocktail under a shady umbrella,
One day dads fishing at the end of a jetty,
While the children are eating yummy strawberry ice-cream,
Bounce, crash, cheers, cling,
It’s the last day of summer!

—

Summer
By Joshua, Oscar, Euan and Patrick

Summer is a splash of joy, with the boom of the ball and the crack of the bat
of the back yard cricket game.
By the burning hot late night barbie.
A bright sunny yellow day.
A lush blue sky and the scorching hot sand.
Green grass swishing from side to side.
One day a boy named Kent decided to fly in the summer breeze, he jumped
and he flew like a boy in the hot summer wind.

—

Christmas in Australia
By Finn, Dylan and Gerry

Christmas in Australia is the crash of the ball hitting the wicket,
The sizzling of the sausages and
The crashing waves
Kookaburras are laughing and children are unwrapping presents
People eat turkey, lamb and pork at Christmas lunch
Christmas in Australia is full of blue sky and the yellow sun
Weeks after Christmas people are playing with their new toys,
and over on the other side of the world children are playing by the fire or in the snow
And back on Christmas Day people are swimming in the pool and having icy poles
Christmas in Australia is having lots of fun in the sun

—

Summer in Australia
By Ella, Emily and Charlotte

Summer is the sound of people bombing
into the pool,
the sizzle of the barbecue,
The crash of the waves,
Rays of sunlight burn your skin
On the beach playing cricket
Slurp, chirp, pop goes the weasel

Sunsets burn the sky with colour
a splash of colour on the ocean
The sea is emerald and sapphire blue,
sun shines on the Sydney Opera House

—

Things We Do in Summer
By Will and Tom

Waves crashing sun tanning
People surfing the world
Flip flops flapping sand crushing
Sun burning
Pool party’s water balloons
Pebble skimming and pineapple eating
Smoothie sipping water splashing
Movie watching boat riding

Fish catching
People diving
People baking under the sun
Ducks quacking
Seagulls squawking
Crabs crawling
Cuttlefish crunching
These are the things we do in summer

Sun rising
Sun setting
Going around the world
Sand castle building
Sausages sizzling
Sand boarding
Bicycle riding
These are the things we do in SUMMER!

—

This is the LAST STOP on Lorraine Marwood’s blog tour to launch Celebrating Australia: A Year in Verse. You can check out the rest of the tour (and the poems at each stop) here:

Blog tour dates and links:

2 March Jackie Hosking:  Topic: What makes a good poem ( according to LM)+ GIVEAWAY.

3 March Kathryn Apel:  Topic: Bringing a poetry collection together.

4 March Rebecca Newman: Topic: Research for poetry writers.

5 March Claire Saxby:  Topic: Inside this collection.

6 March Janeen Brian:  Topic: How you create for the creators: how you create ideas to excite children and adults to write poems of their own.

9 March Alphabet Soup:  Topic: Writing a class poem — the results! + GIVEAWAY. [You’re here!]