45 Days until National Poetry Day!
Are you a poet? There are only 45 days until National Poetry Day, and this year the theme is ‘Messages’.
Do you have a message for the planet, or an animal? Could you write a message poem from an animal, or habitat, or the world, to humanity?
I am collecting message poems of this type on my NPD website, Message Poems to the Planet.
There are PRIZES to be won – Forward Arts Foundation and Macmillan Children’s Books are donating books for the best poems.
The rules are:
The poem must be a message from one being to another, or maybe a habitat like the sea to a human. I particularly like sustainability poems – from a hunter to an elephant, from the elephant to a hunter, perhaps.
The poem must be on a Word document and include on the same document your name, contact details and age if under 18.
The poem must be suitable for posting on the family-friendly website and contain no libel or defamation.
The poem’s suitability for posting will be judged by me and no correspondence will be entered into about why a poem has not been posted or won a prize.
Suitable poems will be tweeted from now until National Poetry Day, October 6th.
Some ways to start a message poem:
This is just to say…
Dear…
I am sorry…
I have to tell you…
I love you because…
Tweet your own poem with one of the hashtags:
#nationalpoetryday
#sayitwithapoem
Don’t forget to include me – @lizpoet, so I can retweet you!
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One of my own children’s poems is called ‘Dear Bee’ and can be found here.
You can find lots more information about National Poetry Day and all the National Poetry Day Ambassadors on the Forward Arts Foundation Ambassadors website, here.
You can find message poems posted there on all subjects and in all styles – go and find some inspiration!
There are also some badges, logos, stamps and posters to download.
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NEWSFLASH!
If you have video capabilities and your poem has been posted on the message poems website, send me a link a video of you reading it, on Youtube – if it is of good enough quality and suitable I may post it in the video section of the message poems website, and on here.
Have fun!
NPD Poem of the Day, The Ballad of Refuge by David Punter
Poem of the Day comes from David Punter of Bristol:
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The Ballad of Refuge
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I come in fear. The wheels, the stuttering engine,
By road or wave; the endless killing payments.
Bit by bit, my mind returns to rubble.
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You come in fear. The hunched back, failed bravado,
They make me squirm. You have no place here, brother;
Get back, for you remind me of my weakness.
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I starve, I thirst. I’m out there in my millions,
Teeming, weeping. Just allow me, brother,
One foot on land. I’ll work hard for my pittance.
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You starve, you thirst. What of me, of my neighbours,
Struggling in an austere land? The steel-plant’s silent,
My skills no longer fit, my hands are idle.
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My hopes are gone. My suffering gods won’t travel,
My women cannot see, their eyes are blinded
By the long dust, the silent days of torture.
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My hopes are gone. You come and you displace me,
The silent mills and fields, they scorn and mock me,
The Union Jack’s a shroud; all’s ripe for burning.
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I call to you. Across the long dark waters,
Carrying a load of trinkets not worth selling,
Umbrellas, handbags, at the gang-master’s calling.
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You call to me. I stop my ears with plaster,
My sons and daughters can’t afford their schooling,
My hospitals are full, the asylum’s broken.
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My last cry sinks. Protect me from this hardness,
This cold that shrinks my soul. Pity me, brother,
Or think on me adrift on the long night’s calling.
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My last cry sinks. Protect me from this falling.
The bailiffs come, the sheets won’t disentangle.
My homeland’s gone. God help us all this winter.
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© David Punter
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NPD Poem of the Day – Dear Earth, by Daisy Proctor, age 7
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Another lovely poem sent in by poet Daisy Proctor:
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Dear Earth
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I will miss
the forest owlet’s big eyes.
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I will miss
The Fire-crown’s long beak.
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I will miss
The cute Malabar Civet.
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I will miss
the Iberian Lynx
My favourite.
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The Hawaiian crow
as black as Halloween
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The South China Tiger’s
stripes
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The beaver’s strong teeth.
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The Seychelle bat’s
deep purple wings.
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The Maui dolphin’s leap.
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The Asiatic cheetah’s speed.
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Suni, the Northern white rhino
died two years ago.
Only one male remains.
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And I’m already missing George
the Pinta Island Tortoise
now extinct.
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© Daisy Proctor, age 7
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Poem © Daisy Proctor
Image © Ars Electronica, shown by Creative Commons License.
NPD Poem of the Day by Brenda Harsham
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Poem of the day comes from Brenda Davis Harsham from Massachusetts:
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This is just to say…
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Thank you, Earth
that held tight trees
bent to their knees
in hurricane winds and
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that imprints time itself
on gorges, stone and shelf,
in the language of fossil hieroglyphics.
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Thank you, Stones
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that, in stillness, filter clean
water in openings between
tiny stones and soil
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yet still cup oceans and rivers,
reflect clouds in shining slivers,
and remember dinosaurs and glaciers.
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Thank you, Soil
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that warms bulbs and seeds
of flowers, trees and weeds
through the long, white winter
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and mothers green shoots
gently soothes new roots
with tender hands, black, moist and fragrant.
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© Brenda Davis Harsham
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Image © Charlón on Flikr, by Creative Commons License.
NPD Poem of the Day – Flow, by Alison Williams
A poem from Alison Williams:
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Flow
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my world is fluid
in a constant
state of flux
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I am an ocean
who once spoke
to the dry land
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I told him how much
I admired his
permanence
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he answered me
with rockfalls, landslides
lava fields
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he showed me
all the pain there is
in rigidness
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when change comes
then the hardness somehow
has to break
.
rending himself apart
and shedding
tears of fire
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he gave me
just a glimpse
into his molten core
.
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© Alison Williams
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Image by Kodyak Tisch on Flikr by Creative Commons License.
If you would like a chance to see your message poem on this blog, please look at the instructions here.
National Poetry Day Message Poem of the Day – Each Day the Sea Writes
A fabulous poem of the day from Bruce Black, from Sarasota, Florida:
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Each Day the Sea Writes
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Each day the sea writes lines
On the edge of the sand, and clouds
Draw messages in the sky, and laughing
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Gulls swoop and swirl and plead while
Sandhill cranes raise their beaks high
To cry, and ospreys circle, screeching,
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And hawks, wings spread wide, shriek, and
Mockingbirds, robins, and cardinals sing
Their appeal to get your attention—
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(and you can hear, too, the rusty-hinged
protest of the Great blue heron), and dolphins,
leaping, dance in unison to make their point,
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And manatees—those graceful sea cows—frolic
Near the surface, trying to send the same message
To all of us gazing in awe at the beauty of the world:
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Keep our water clean and our air
clear for as long as waves wash the sand
and clouds touch the sky.
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© Bruce Black
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Poem © Bruce Black
Image © Jack Flanagan on Flikr by Creative Commons License
NPD Poem of the Day – To the Unborn, by Helen Laycock
Image by Stuart Rankin on Flikr by CC license.
A new message poem in the run-up to National Poetry Day, by Helen Laycock:
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To the unborn
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Sorry is not enough of an apology
for what you are about to receive
upon your birth –
a broken Earth
whose bones we have picked
and whose flesh we have stripped.
We bequeath you: the carcass.
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Please forgive our hatred
of our brothers and sisters,
how our minds
wrongly defined
the miracles that we are –
that singular bond amongst the stars.
You inherit: our dysfunction.
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Our tears were not enough to wash
away the blood of creatures savaged
for egos and trinkets
as they stopped to drink
from water holes and, shy,
lay beneath the punctured sky.
We leave you: their memory.
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Frozen in the now, too late we saw the melt;
ice caps will be your legends
like polar bears
and unsullied air.
From space, no green, just scars…
We clawed our world sparse.
We endow you with: ruin.
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You are the wardens, the short-changed, the healers.
Please clear up the debris
of greed and decay.
We were led astray.
We looked away and heard
messages we preferred.
We pass on: our regret.
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© Helen Laycock
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NPD Poem of the Day
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This message poem comes from Daisy Proctor, age 7, from Bristol:
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Sky
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I love you sky
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The way you shimmer on bright blue days
Your lovely blue light
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I love you sky
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Daisy Proctor
Age 7
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What a lovely poem, Daisy!
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Poem © Daisy Proctor
Image by Aikawa Ke on Flikr, shown by Creative Commons license.
