T is for Children’s Poets Jill Townsend and Nick Toczek #AtoZChallenge #ZtoA

Liz Brownlee ♦ April 9, 2018 ♦ 2 Comments

Jill Townsend

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Jill Townsend

Jill Townsend has had poems for children published in over 80 anthologies and her collection, Going To The Olympics, is available from Amazon on Kindle or for download to a p.c. She also writes for adults. Her website is here.

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Here is one of her lovely poems:

LETTER TO MY UNCLE

1912. The 17th of March.

Dear Uncle,

Thank you for your invitation

to sail with you next month. I’d very much

like to accept but there’s a complication –

I really ought to write and ask my parents.

They may not let me miss more time from school

after my illness. So, with your forbearance,

I’ll write. But stopping me would be too cruel!

I hear that the Titanic’s really something –

the biggest thing afloat, that’s what they say.

Her maiden voyage! And I could be coming.

If they say no, I think I’ll stow away!

Perhaps there’s hope though. Maybe they’ll agree.

I’ll let you know.

Your loving nephew,

G

© Jill Townsend 2000

Nick Toczek

© Gaynor Toczek

Nick Toczek

Nick Toczek is a British writer and performer who has had more than forty books and dozens of recording published. As well as being a poet, he’s a rock journalist (for the magazine RnR), a radio broadcaster with his own week show (on BCB Radio), a professional magician and puppeteer, and an authority on the activities of racist groups in the UK and in America. To find our more about him, check out his Wikipedia page here and his Authors Abroad page here. His own brand new website is currently under construction and should be fully active by summer 2018. (I will add it then!)

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Here is one of his great poems:

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WINTER AT THE ZOO

When round the zoo it starts to freeze

The chimpanzees’ll hug their knees

While monkeys, donkeys, fish and fleas

And marmosets and manatees,

Brown bears, baboons and bumble bees

And other breeds of beasts like these

Bronchitically sneeze and wheeze

From cough, cold, flu or such disease.

But we don’t, we don’t, we don’t care

Says penguin to the polar bear.

And round and round and round and round

The neck of every tall giraffe

Is wound and wound and wound and wound

An oh-so-lengthy woollen scarf.

And each bird hunching in its nest,

Beak thrust between its wing and chest,

Stays warm by being doubly dressed

In plumage plus a thermal vest.

But we don’t, we don’t, we don’t care

Says penguin to the polar bear.

The stags and stallions and stoats

Start wrapping snakes around their throats,

While gibbons, guppies, geese and goats

Wear gabardines and overcoats,

And all the cats and bats and rats

And fat wombats and tall meerkats

To keep warm leap like acrobats

While wearing socks and gloves and hats.

But we don’t, we don’t, we don’t care

Says penguin to the polar bear.

The snow lies thick on distant hills.

Ice forms on pools and window-sills.

There’s frost on fencing, bars and grills.

Now no ker-chinging fills the tills,

No visitors to pay the bills.

The heat’s turned down. The whole place chills.

No hoots or howls or growls or trills.

A silence falls that saps all wills.

But we don’t, we don’t, we don’t care

Says penguin to the polar bear.

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© Nick Toczek

All material copyright of the poets.

This post will form part of a permanent A-Z of children’s poets on Poetry Roundabout after the challenge has finished.