P is for Children’s Poets Trevor Parsons and Brian Patten, #AtoZChallenge #ZtoA

Liz Brownlee ♦ April 12, 2018 ♦ Leave a comment

Brian Patten

Photography Credit: APEX

Brian Patten

Brian Patten writes for both adults and children and his books have been translated into many languages. An accomplished performer of both humorous and serious work, he has performed in venues as varied as The Islamic Students Union in Khartoum, local schools, and the Royal Festival Hall on London’s South Bank. More poems and information about Brian and video clips etc. can be found on his website, here. One of his poetry books, Thawing Frozen Frogs (try saying that quickly!) illustrated by Chris Riddell, is here.

Here is one of his wonderful poems:

Geography Lesson

Our teacher told us one day he would leave

And sail across a warm blue sea

To places he had only known from maps,

And all his life had longed to see.

the house he lived in was narrow and grey

But in his mind’s eye he could see

Sweet-scented jasmine clinging t the walls,

And green leaves burning on an orange tree.

He spoke of the lands he longed to visit,

Where it was never drab or cold.

I couldn’t understand why he never left,

and shook off the school’s stranglehold.

Then halfway through his final term

He took ill and never returned,

And he never got to that place on the map

Where the green leaves of the orange trees burned.

The maps were redrawn on the classroom wall;

His name was forgotten, it faded away.

But a lesson he never knew he taught

Is with me to this day.

I travel to where the green leaves burn,

to where the ocean’s glass-clear and blue,

to all those places my teacher taught me to love

But which he never knew

Trevor Parsons

Trevor Parsons was born in Parsons Green, London, but, disappointingly, was not the son of a parson. After studying dentistry at London University (he decided it was not for him) he had a variety of jobs including being a postman and cataloguing pressed flowers; then he trained as a teacher and after that formed a company making models for film companies etc. Trevor has written poetry since his postman days and for the last twenty years has written for children as well. He has had poems in dozens of anthologies and in 2011 had his first children’s collection, Hear Here (illustrated by Lucy Creed) published – available here! He also writes poems for greetings cards. This is his website.

This is one of his witty poems:

All About Poets

A poet is for life

not just for Christmas Day.

Stroking a silky-haired poet

can soothe your troubles away.

A long-haired breed of poet

should always be kept well-groomed.

Keep their sleeping-quarters

in a draught-free part of the room.

Do not indulge your poet

with titbits from your plate.