Karen Classroom ideas, Poem

Valentine’s Day is coming: quotes, thoughts and poetry about LOVE

Heart shape by shadow of ring binder
CC-BY Alex https://flic.kr/p/FLPq

It’s that time of year when a poet is called to write about Love.

“Now no discourse, except it be of Love”
– Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona

“Love’s language starts, stops starts;
the right words flowing or clotting in the heart.”
– from Syntax by Carol Ann Duffy

“All You Need Is Love”
– The Beatles

“My room, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever:
I was wrong”
– from Funeral Blues by W.H. Auden

Ooh! I Think You’re Wonderful by Bernard Young

You’re the wings on my aeroplane
You’re the strings on my guitar
You’re the star in my night-sky
You’re the garage for my car

You’re the answer to my question
You’re the pen that writes my line
You’re the spring in my onion
You’re the tingle down my spine

You’re the zipper on my jacket
You’re the ketchup on my chips
You’re the method in my madness
You’re the promise on my lips

You’re the headline in my paper
You’re all my favourite smells
You’re the last piece in my jigsaw
Oops! Sorry, I thought you were someone else

Karen Classroom ideas

World Poetry Day – Friday 21 March 2014

Image of map with scrabble letters spelling World Poetry Day
CC-BY Karen Cropper http://www.flickr.com/photos/dentonpotter/11590533916

World Poetry Day (21 March each year) celebrates and promotes the reading, writing, publishing and teaching of poetry worldwide. The day was declared an official observance day by UNESCO in 1999. But as many countries already had established traditional National Poetry Day’s around October time (in UK 2 October 2014), this worldwide celebration receives very little publicity in those countries, including the UK. But I say, the more poetry days, the merrier.

You could celebrate World Poetry Day in your school by learning about poems from different cultures, including from pupils’ own cultures. Or investigate different forms of poem, such as the Japanese Haiku or the Arabic Ruba’i.

Here are some teaching resources online that you may find useful:

To book me to visit your school for the day, see Contact page.

 

Karen Poem

What did you get for Christmas? I didn’t get a bike

Poem and pictures from the book Brilliant by Bernard Young
Copyright Bernard Young

This poem is from my book ‘Brilliant’.

Extract:

I got a massive box of chocolates
but I didn’t get a bike

I got some extra-special roller-skates
but I didn’t get a bike

I got a mind-blowing computer game
but I didn’t get a bike.

Karen Poem

You can’t fool me, there’s something going on!

Image of pair of glasses with the word genius across each lens
Copyright Bernard Young

There’s Something Going On

When there’s a big cake in the kitchen
When there’s holly in the hall
When there’s tinsel round the telly
And presents wall to wall

When there’s mistletoe and ivy
And a decorated tree
I know something’s going on
You can’t fool me

Karen Poem

What happens when Santa spends Christmas at his in-laws?

Cuddly toys in snow Santa and raindeer
Image copyright Bernard Young

Santa’s Christmas

(i)

This year,
though not by choice,
Santa Claus is spending Christmas
with his in-laws.

Ask him why
and he’ll just sigh
and say
‘Because…’

(ii)

Indoors

grim as a blizzard
prickly as holly
charming as a burst pipe

Mrs Santa…claws!

(iii)

Outdoors

the reindeer have downed sleigh
and are moaning
about the increased work-load
and the frozen pay.

Led by hard-nosed Rudolf the Red
(who, contrary to popular belief, is not nice)
they are imposing a work to rule
– a no slide rule on the ice
– a go slow on the snow.

Most folk, thinks Santa, just don’t realise,
being the boss is not all mince pies
and Ho! Ho! Ho!

(iv)

After much negotiation
and hard snowballing
Santa and the reindeer
have reached an agreement.

The Christmas delivery is safe.

Unlike Santa, who,
hurrying to and fro,
slips on the fast freezing snow.

Oh! Oh! Ow!

(v)

Christmas Day.
Work done.

Santa watches his mother-in-law
(a tough old bird)
wrestling with the turkey.

Boxing Day!
The fight goes on.

Two falls and a submission.
It’s over.

The turkey’s won.

(vi)

Sometimes
(don’t you know, know, know)
Santa, too, wrestles;
has a bout with self-doubt,
and loses.

At times
(don’t you know, know, know)
he even finds it hard
to believe in himself
himself.

This year,
to get him through this crisis,
to save him from distress,
I’m conducting a little survey
to discover, more or less,
who still believes in Father Christmas.

So if you do, shout YES!

Image of santa with words 'Yes? ? No?'
Image copyright Bernard Young

Bernard Young is an experienced performance poet who is available for workshops in schools, particularly primary age (KS1/KS2). He’s based in Manchester, but happy to travel further afield. Over the years he’s also worked successfully in partnership with Road Safety officers combining the road safety message with creative writing. To book Bernard for a workshop in your school, see Contact page.

Karen Poem

Santa Claus ain’t coming, Junior has taken over

Poem and image
Copyright Bernard Young and Tod Leedale 2000

This Poem is from “Brilliant” and is available as a card from Redbubble: http://www.redbubble.com/people/youngpoet/works/9459104-santa-claus-aint-coming

Karen Poem

A poem to get you in the Christmas mood, with mistletoe

A face in the snow
Image copyright Bernard Young
I hope everyone out there is looking forward to Christmas and hoping it will be a white one. Some folk have already seen the first snow fall. When I think of Christmas, I think of mistletoe.

Snow and Mistletoe

My heart is beating
fast, not slow,
as I stand beneath
the mistletoe.

My face is red.
My ears aglow.
I’ve just been snogged
by Rachel Snow*.

It was GREAT!
Not so-so.
She’s a terrific kisser.
Now you know.

* This is made up. Miss Snow is no-one I know.

Bernard Young is an experienced performance poet who is available for workshops, in schools particularly primary age. He’s based in Manchester, but happy to travel further afield. Over the years he’s also worked successfully in partnership with Road Safety officers combining the road safety message with creative writing. To book Bernard for a workshop in your school, see Contact page.

Karen Performance

UK Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy reads a Human Bee in Hunmanby

Portrait image of Carol Ann DuffyI was very fortunate to be one of 120 people in the intimate audience at Hunmanby Community Centre last night for a poetry evening. Carol Ann Duffy, one of the most significant names in contemporary British poetry, read a selection of her older and more recent work, accompanied in a couple by the very entertaining woodwind musician, John Sampson, who also performed in her breaks on an abundant array of older and more recent woodwind instruments.

As I’d had the tickets for some time, in preparation, I had been rereading my Carol Ann Duffy collection, and was pleased to hear her perform some that were already familiar to me. I was enlightened by her introductions, explaining where she drew her inspiration and what references and nuances there were in the words.  I particularly like her use of list-like poems and admire her word craft, how she places rhymes in less formal spaces… and her comic timing. I hadn’t realised that “The Counties” (in “The Bees”) was a protest inspired by the Post Office’s campaign to lose the county from postal addresses, because of its distraction from the post code.

But I want to write to the National Poet of Wales at Ceredigion
in celebration
and I want to write to the Dorset Giant
in admiration
and I want to write to a widow in Rutland
in commiseration
and to the Inland Revenue in Yorkshire
in desperation

I’m sure I’ve drunk in a lot of the traditional pubs listed so fluidly in “John Barleycorn”. Carol Ann read quite a few others from her last published anthology (“The Bees” 2011), which has a thread running through of the environmental concerns of the loss of bees. “The Human Bee” (in the title of this post) refers to people in China who have the job of pollinating fruit trees by hand because they have no bees to do it any more.

I became a human bee at twelve,
when they gave me my small wand,
my flask of pollen,
and I walked with the other bees
out to the orchards.

Karen Poem, School visit

Time to Wrap up and Rap

Cat wrapped in a blanket
Image Copyright Karen Cropper
Since the season of cold weather is upon us, here’s a poem for you to rap as you go about your business. Might warm you up. Particularly if you perform a little dance at the same time.

Wrap Up Rap

When the wind is blowing
And snow is on the way
Get your woolly hat on
Wrap up warm today

And sing the wrap up
Sing the wrap up
Sing the wrap up rap

Find a scarf and good thick gloves
Don’t forget your coat
Be prepared for the attack
When Jack Frost grabs your throat

And sing the wrap up
Sing the wrap up
Sing the wrap up rap

Here comes thunder
Here comes hail
Hear the thunder
Dodge the hail

And sing the wrap up
Sing the wrap up
Sing the wrap up rap

Hat for head
Socks for toes
In your scarf
Bury your nose

And sing the wrap up
Sing the wrap up
Sing that wrap up rap

Bernard Young is an experienced performance poet who is available for workshops in schools, particularly primary age. He is based in Manchester, but will travel further afield. Over the years he has also worked successfully in partnership with Road Safety officers, combining the road safety message with creative writing. For more info, see the Contact page.

Karen Poem

Winter Weather Warning – It’s going to be seasonally cold!

I’ve seen some posts on facebook about the fact that cold weather in winter is no surprise, it happens every year. It reminded me to share a poem about it.

A Cold Spell

Take a misty morning
A foggy night

A snuffly nose
A snowball fight

An icy road
Warm woolly tights

Add chilblain pain
A wind that bites

Then summon sleet
Think thoughts of white

Now look outside
It’s winter. Right?

Church just visible through fog
Image copyright Bernard Young

Bernard Young is an experienced performance poet who is available for workshops in schools, particularly primary age. He is based in Manchester, but will travel further afield. Over the years he has also worked successfully in partnership with Road Safety officers, combining the road safety message with creative writing. For more information, see the Contact page.