Poetry Box NATIONAL POETRY DAY celebration: 8 NZ children’s authors read a poem for you – plus poetry challenges – plus book giveaways – IDEAS for SCHOOLS and for LOCKDOWN TIME

National Poetry Day is on Friday August 27th. To celebrate I invited 8 of my favourite children’s authors to read a poem they love. I have put some poetry challenges under each reading for you to try. I am fairly sure National Poetry Day events will be reinvented online so I am sharing this poetry festival now.

Perfect for National Poetry Day but even more perfect for lockdown. Writing and reading poems is my happy place! Have a go!

I am currently in a state of drift and daze so do let me know if I have made mistakes – I am always grateful not offended.

🌻 A big bouquet of warm thanks and salty west-coast air and mānuka scent and blue skies to the eight authors who did such glorious mahi out of poetry love and the poets who gave permission. Thank you!

Listen to the authors read a poem

Try some of my poem challenges

Deadline: 10th September

Send to: paulajoygreen@gmail.com

Include: name, age, year, name of school or homeschooled

Don’t forget to put National Poetry Day Poem in subject line so I don’t miss it

I will post some favourite poems on 17th September. I will have loads of books to give away! I will read all the poems and email you back by this date.

IF YOU MAKE a video – I need parental permission to post it if I pick it.

TOP TIP: Leave your poem for a day and then read it out loud. Listen again before you send it to me.

Happy National Poetry Day!

Keep safe, be kind, share the joy in poetry.

The Poets reading Poems

Vasanti Unka

Vasanti Unka reads ‘When the Lid Slides back’ by Bill Manhire

Poem challenges

Choose a favourite object and write a poem about it.

Pick five favourite words in Bill’s poem and use them in a poem of your own.

Bill loved using his coloured pencils. What do you love doing? Write a poem, long or short, about a favourite thing to do. You might start with an object or you might collect verbs to get you started.

You could turn any of these ideas into a picture/shape/concrete poem. You could make an audio or video of yourself reading your poem or even making your poem!! (need parental permission to send me)

Poem source: Bill Manhire is one of my favourite NZ poets and I especially love this poem. I picked it for A Treasury of NZ Poetry for Children (Penguin Random House). It is in Bill’s collection The Victims of Lightning (Victoria University Press).

Vasanti Unka is a picture book creator who writes, illustrates and designs books for ages, 4 – 108 year olds. Over the years, her work has won a range of awards. Her latest book, I Am the Universe won the Booksellers best kids book for 2021. She was born in Pukekohe and presently works out of her sunroom in Auckland. Vasanti’s blogspot. Penguin author page

Bill Manhire’s most recent poetry book Wow (VUP) was longlisted for the NZ Book Awards 2020. He was New Zealand’s inaugural poet laureate, and founded and for many years taught at the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington. Many New Zealand poets have been through this highly acclaimed writing propgramme. In 2005 he was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit and in in the same year was named an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate. He has edited major poetry anthologies. You can listen to some of his poems here.

Gareth Ward

Gareth Ward reads ‘The Door’ by Daniel Stokes (written aged 10)

Poetry Challenges

Choose a portal, maybe a door or window, and build a poem around it. Your poem might be IMAGINARY or REALISTIC.

You could do a list poem. A window is … OR A door is … OR A gate is …

Or you could write a poem that uses a portal to tell a story. Think of the scene, the mood, fascinating things that might be on the other side.

Poem source: Toitoi 21. This is a wonderful journal of writing and artwork by children. You can find details about it here.

Gareth Ward, a.k.a. The Great Wardini, is a magician, hypnotist, storyteller, bookseller and author. He has worked as a Royal Marine Commando, Police Officer, Evil Magician and Zombie. He basically likes jobs where you get to wear really cool hats. He currently resides in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand where he runs two independent bookshops, Wardini Books and Wardini Books Napier with his wife Louise. He has a goldfish called Luna, a dog called Tonks and is certain his letter from Hogwarts has been lost in the post.

His first novel, The Traitor and the Thief, a rip-roaring young adult Steampunk adventure, won the 2016 Storylines Tessa Duder Award, the 2018 Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Youth Novel, a 2018 Storylines Notable Book Award and was a finalist in two categories at The New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. His second novel, The Clockill and the Thief was released in August 2019 and won a Sir Julius Vogel award for best youth novel. Brasswitch and Bot is Gareth’s third novel and the first in the Rise of the Remarkables series. It is set in the city of York, where Gareth went to University.

My name is Daniel, I was born in Hamilton and still live here. I am 11 years old, turning 12 in December. I live with my sister (Abby), my mum (Kate) and my dad (David). My many hobbies include Irish dancing, reading, and trumpet, which have all become very important to me. I am working towards Grade 5 for practical trumpet and music theory.  I have also developed an interest in waterpolo earlier this year. I am very passionate about that and look forward to the next season. 

The first writing I enjoyed was poetry, which my many teachers at my old school, Hukanui School, made me do all the time. That then brought me into the world of writing. In the last few years I went from disliking writing quite strongly to enjoying it very much. The problem that I had always had with writing was not the actual ideas and content, it was the physical writing and having a link between what I was thinking (which goes 100 miles an hour) to what I was writing (which was much, much slower). Poetry allowed me to think less about grammatical structure and the amount of words and more about how I could bend words to my advantage, by investigating how groups of words sound together to paint a picture.

Philippa Werry

Phillipa Werry reads ‘If you feel blue get on your skidoo’ by Margaret Mahy

Poetry Challenges courtesy of Phillipa:

Write a poem about another mode of transport that plays on its name, as Margaret does with skidoo.  You could pick submarine, double-decker bus, helicopter, train, bicycle, balloon, snowboard, lorry … or something other fascinating means of travelling. 

Write a list poem that starts If you feel ….. (some emotion). You could feel happy, sad, scared, lonely lost, cross, shy, bored … you pick!

Write a poem with some made-up words in it. 

Your poem might tell a story or just have fun with WORDS!

Let your imagine go flying!

Poem source: This fabulous poem is in Margaret’s fabulous poetry collection The Word Witch, edited by Tessa Duder, illustrations by David Elliot (HarperCollins)

Philippa Werry writes fiction, non-fiction, plays and poetry for children and young adults. She has a particular interest in history which has led to titles such as Anzac Day, Best Mates (illustrated by Bob Kerr), Waitangi Day, The New Zealand Wars, The Telegram and This is Where I Stand (illustrated by Kieran Rynhart). She has also been to Antarctica!

Margaret Mahy (1936 – 2012) is one of New Zealand’s most beloved authors. She wrote over two hundred titles from dazzling picture books for the very young to award-winning novels for teenagers. She wrote poems, novels, non-fiction, picture books and countless school readers. Margaret was awarded the Hans Christian Anderson Medal which is an enormous, international honour.

Donovan Bixley

Donovan Bixley reads ‘The Circus’ by Joy Cowley

Poetry Challenges

Donovan says he loves funny poems and poems with an AH HA! moment in the middle. I do too!

Try writing a poem that is funny. It might be a funny character, a funny event, a funny place, funny food, funny jokes.

Write a poem about something funny that has happened to you.

Write a poem that has a surprise or a twist in the middle or at the end.

Poem source: Elephant Rhymes, Joy Cowley, illustrated by Brent Putzee (Scholastic) I am such a fan of Joy’s poems. Check our her Gobbledegook book (see her bio).

Donovan Bixley is one of New Zealand’s most acclaimed picture book creators with over 120 books published in 31 countries. His award-winning titles span high–brow to low–brow and every brow in between, from his illustrated biography Much Ado About Shakespeare, to the hilarious hijinks of pussycats in planes in Paris in his Flying Furballs series. He’s most well-known for his best-selling pre-school books such as The Wheels on the Bus and The Great Kiwi ABC Book, as well as his colourful and humorous retellings of of the legends of Māui. Among his many accolades Donovan was the recipient of the 2017 Mallinson Rendel Illustrators Laureate Award, which places Donovan’s body of work alongside some of New Zealand’s most celebrated artists. His books have been twice selected for the International Youth Library’s White Raven award which annually lists the top 200 children’s books in the world, and in 2021 he was named a Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for his services to New Zealand children’s literature.Donovan grew up in Taupō and still lives beside the great lake. When not immersed in the world of picture books Donovan is involved in local theatre and plays saxophone in several bands.

Joy Cowley is one of New Zealand’s best-loved writers. Her awards include the Margaret Mahy Medal; the NZ Post Children’s Book Award 2006; the Roberta Long Medal, Alabama, USA; and the AW Reed Award for Contribution to New Zealand Literature. She is a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. Gecko Pres published the utterly magnificent gathering of Joy’s poems, with illustrations by Giselle Clarkson in The Gobbledegook Book: A Joy Cowley Anthology.

Melinda Szymanik

Melinda Szymanik reads ‘Sun Sonata’ by Elizabeth Pulford and ‘Waxing and Waning’ by Elena de Roo.

Poetry Challenges

Try writing a very small poem about the sun OR the moon that shows them in a new light.

Collect sun OR moon words and make poem patterns with them. Have word fun!

Write a very small poem with both the SUN and MOON in. Test out favourite lines and pick your favourites.

Poem sources: Elizabeth Pulford’s ‘Sun Sonata and Elena de Roo’s poems are both in A Treasury of NZ Poems for Children, edited by Paula Green (Penguin Random House).

Melinda Szymanik is an award-winning writer of stories and poetry for children and young adults. She was the 2014 University of Otago, College of Education, Creative New Zealand Children’s Writer in Residence, a judge for the 2016 NZCYA Book Awards and runs an online writing competition called Fabostory, for primary and intermediate age children with 9 other authors. Her most recent books are Moon and Sun (Upstart, 2021), My Elephant is Blue (Penguin, 2021) and Batkiwi (Scholastic, 2021).

Elena de Roo is a children’s poet and author who lives next to Cornwall Park in Auckland. As well as having a sweet tooth, she loves thinking up poems in her head while walking around the park. Her latest book, Rush! Rush! (illus. Jenny Cooper) One Tree House, is a story-poem inspired by a walk in Awhitu regional park. Elena also has several poems soon to appear in Roar, Squeak, Purr: A NZ Treasury of Animal Poems, (ed. Paula Green, illus. Jenny Cooper), Penguin Random House, due out in November. www.elenaderoo.com 

Elizabeth Pulford lives in a small village not far from the city of Dunedin, New Zealand, with one extra nice husband, and a gentle garden. She has two adult children and two grandchildren. She has published stories, poems and articles for both adults and children. Over sixty books for children, from early readers through to Young Adults; plus one adult’s novel. Many of her adult short stories have won competitions, while four of her children’s books, The Memory Tree (Scholastic NZ), Call of the Cruins (Scholastic NZ), Tussock (Walker Books Australia) and Finding Monkey Moon (Walker Books Australia & Candlewick USA) reached the finals of the New Zealand Children’s Book Awards.

Tania Roxborogh

Tania Roxborogh reads ‘My Sister’s Top’ by Ruth Sun (Year 7)

Poetry Challenge

Think of an everyday object that you can describe in a poem, and that says something about who you are and your place in the world.

Use someone’s favourite piece of clothing to write a poem about them.

Choose your own favourite piece of clothing and see where that takes you in a poem. You might get a story, a word pattern, a picture poem, a list poem.

Poem source: Ruth wrote this poem when she did writing workshops with Tania over six weeks in 2006.

Tania Roxborogh (Ngāti Porou) is a veteran educator and an award-winning writer of over thirty published works. Her latest children’s novel, Charlie Tangaroa and the creature from the sea, published by Huia Publishers September 2020, won the Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction and Margaret Mahy Book of the Year in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, 2021. Tania’s happy places are: her classroom, at home with her husband and her young border collie, enjoying pyjama days, and wherever she can snatch time to read – most often books recommended by her students.

From Ruth Sun: I was a massive reader all through my teenage years, at the time I really liked fantasy and always wanted to be the next Tamora Pierce or Terry Pratchett. I was at Columba College in Dunedin. I used to read and write constantly, although I didn’t actually like poetry much at the time. 

Unfortunately I don’t really do any writing anymore, although it’s something I always think about getting back into. Funnily enough I love reading poetry now, I still love Tamora Pierce and Terry Pratchett as well. I’m now a dentist based in Wellington/Porirua. I have a big collection of books but they’re all in storage at the moment. I’m sure mum still has that top somewhere!

Elena de Roo

Elena de Roo reads ‘Parcel’ by Bill Nagelkerke

Poetry Challenges

Think of a place you love and unwrap it in a poem! It might be your grandparents’ place, or aunt or uncle’s, or in another town or city, in the countryside, another country.

Hunt for detail that will make the place glow in your poem.

Poetry Source: The Night the Moon Fell Down and other poems, Bill Nagelkerke (Copy Press) – some terrific poems in this collection! PG

Elena de Roo is a children’s poet and author who lives next to Cornwall Park in Auckland. As well as having a sweet tooth, she loves thinking up poems in her head while walking around the park. Her latest book, Rush! Rush! (illus. Jenny Cooper) One Tree House, is a story-poem inspired by a walk in Awhitu regional park. Elena also has several poems soon to appear in Roar, Squeak, Purr: A NZ Treasury of Animal Poems, (ed. Paula Green, illus. Jenny Cooper), Penguin Random House, due out in November. www.elenaderoo.com 

A former children’s librarian, Bill Nagelkerke has written short stories, poems, plays and books for all ages, as well as translating other people’s books from Dutch into English. His most recent titles are a collection of poems, The night the moon fell down (dist. The Copy Press, 2019) and a ghost story, The ghosts on the hill (Cuba Press, 2020). His translation of the children’s novel I’ll keep you close (Levine Querido, 2021) by Dutch writer Jeska Verstegen will be published towards the end of the year.

Bill Nagelkerke

Bill Nagelkerke reads ‘No rhyme’ by Tim Upperton

Poetry Challenge

Tim Upperton’s poem offers lots of challenges for poets! Try writing a poem where you use your imagination and see the world in surprising ways.

Look out the window and rewrite what you see in a poem, letting your imagination soar.

Poem source: ‘No rhyme’ was published in the School Journal Level 3 August 2015 

A former children’s librarian, Bill Nagelkerke has written short stories, poems, plays and books for all ages, as well as translating other people’s books from Dutch into English. His most recent titles are a collection of poems, The night the moon fell down (dist. The Copy Press, 2019) and a ghost story, The ghosts on the hill (Cuba Press, 2020). His translation of the children’s novel I’ll keep you close (Levine Querido, 2021) by Dutch writer Jeska Verstegen will be published towards the end of the year.

Tim Upperton is a poet, writer, reviewer and teacher, living in Palmerston North. He is the winner of two international poetry competitions. He has been published in numerous literary journals and has published several poetry collections.

Poetry Box review: ‘Rush! Rush!’ by Elena de Roo, illustrated by Jenny Cooper

Rush! Rush! by Elena de Roo, illustrated by Jenny Cooper, One Tree House, 2021

Over the fence,

and down with a whoosh!

Onto the track!

Into the bush.

Elena de Roo is my favourite New Zealand poet for children and I have long hoped for a collection from her. Her new book Rush! Rush! is definitely a start. The book-length poem is an absolute JOY to read. A young girl is racing to get from home to the beach. Maestro illustrator Jenny Cooper has painted the girl in her pyjamas and dressing gown, because she has pulled the curtains back, peeked at the beautiful day, and then whizzed through the door. Rush! Rush! Rush! The illustrations are sublime. So full of exuberant life. Read the book and savour the images as you race along with the poem and the girl. You will get breathless too!

Every word is pitch perfect. One of the reasons (and there are many) I admire Elena as a poet is because she has a deft musical ear. She listens to how the line sounds. She avoids the clunky predictable rhythms and rhymes of so many picture books. She catches the rhythm of a child rushing, breathing in sights and sounds, and who is too excited to stop. The rhymes are a treat, especially the near rhymes that add knottiness to the musical flow (blind / time; sheep / bleat). She dances between soft and sharp sounds. Ah! she is a poet musician extraordinaire!

It felt like I read the story poem in one delicious breath – and I really liked the ending. A perfect ending (a single word!) to open the story wide like the girl’s arms stretched wide on the cover.

This book is a JOYFUL INVIGORATING POETRY treat and would be the very best book to read aloud to a class or your children. I was reminded of Margaret Mahy’s fabulous A Summery Saturday Morning. I love Rush! Rush! And it has given me an idea for my April Poetry Challenge.

Swoop round the shed,

In a ground-hugging loop.

What’s all the fuss about?

Rattles the roof.

Elena de Roo completed this book when she was the 2020 University of Otago College of Education / Creative NZ Children’s Writer in Residence. She has written a number of award-winning books and lives in Auckland.

Jenny Cooper is an award-winning illustrator and has illustrated more than 70 books. She lives in Amberley, Christchurch.

One Tree House page

Elena de Roo website

Poetry Box bubble time: Elena de Roo’s bird slide show, bird poems and my bird challenges

Elena de Roo is one of my favourite New Zealand children’s poets. You can find some of her poems in A Treasury of NZ Poems for Children (Random House). She writes poems with a listening ear and a zesty imagination. There is always a sprinkling of heart, surprise and music. I love the way the real world comes alive as much as imagined things. I just love love her poems!

Elena has picked some of her bird poems to share with you. You can watch the bird slide show and listen to her two poems and then try my BIRD activities.

I will have a copy of A Treasury of NZ Poems for Children to give to one child who sends me something from one of my bird activities below.

 

Listen to Elena read ‘Pīwakawaka’ while you watch the slides:

 

 

 

 

Listen to Elena reading ‘Hunting the Dawn’

 

 

 

Listen to Elena read ‘Pīwakawaka’ without the slide show!

 

 

 

 

Some BIRD ACTIVITIES for you

 

1       Bird sounds  LISTEN to your poem as you write it!

I was inspired by Elena’s morepork poem. Make a list of bird sound words. Start with tweet and cheep and then use your ears to make up words for the sounds different birds make. Try morepork / ruru  or a chook or a duck or a hawk or a kiwi or a dotterel or a starling. Choose any bird you like!

Can you find bird sounds online and listen to then? Can you listen to bird sounds outside?

Pick one bird and use the sounds you gathered for it and make a poem. Do an illustration to go with it if you like. You may even want to record yourself reading the poem.

Or write a poem full of different sounds and bird activities. Do an illustration to go with it if you like. You may even want to record yourself reading the poem.

 

2       Bird patterns  LISTEN to your poem as you write it!

I love the way words make patterns in Elena’s pīwakawaka poem.

Pick one of your favourite birds. Draw a circle (or a bird) and fill it with as many words as you can that show the bird (you choose!): what the bird looks like, sounds like, how they move, what they eat, where they live, anything special, different or unique about them.

flutter flutter fantail

flitter flitter wing

dance dance silver bird

shimmer shimmer sing

 

Use some of the words to make a bird pattern poem.

You could make a bird pattern poem in the shape of a bird.

OR use some of your words to tell a little bird story in a poem

 

Do an illustration to go with it if you like. You may even want to record yourself reading the poem.

 

h a v e    f u n  !!!!

 

send to  paulajoygreen@gmail.com

please include your name age and name of school

don’t forget to put NAME OF challenge in subject line so I don’t miss it

don’t put your surname on drawings or paintings or collages (Poetry Box policy)

 

There is no deadline while we are living in our bubbles! Every Friday I will post some work by children.

I will always answer your emails but not straightaway. If I haven’t replied after 3 or 4 days nudge me as I may have missed it.

I will have at least one book to give away each Friday.

 

 

You can also try these Poetry Box activities. Click on links below:

 

Tell about a book you have loved in bubble time.

Richard Langston reads his red poem with colour activities

Sacha Cotter and Josh Morgan’s magnificent videos and The Bomb activities

write or draw something for your favourite library or bookshop

Listen to Ashley (8) read: try my dinosaur, pets and swip swap challenges

Have fun with SOUNDS, muck around with WORDS

Listen to Amelia (8) read 3 poems from The Treasury and try my activities

Listen to Philippa Werry read her poem and try her simile challenge

Make a memory album or page

Try my lost-wonder challenges and listen Sarah Ell’s new book Lost Wonders!

Loads of MAKING ideas inside and outside

Do something rainy or snowy! Watch me read my rain and cold poems from The Letterbox Cat

Listen to Melinda Szymanik read her alien mother story and try your own

Send me pictures, photos or poems of curious things you see on your walks

Listen to Maisie and I read fish poems and invite you to do fishy things

Listen to my unpublished very very very strange tail story and do some illustrations for it or invent your own strange tail!

Try writing a postcard poem from where you’d like to be!

Mixed up animals and hear Paula read ‘Anifables’ poem

Sally Sutton’s magic hat challenge

Celebrate your hero and listen to Barbara Else read

Tell me about your favourite bookshop or library

Try my Pass the Poem challenge with friends and family by phone or email

Write draw video comic strip letters poems stories about being in your bubble

My cloudy challenges and hear my cloud poem

My thank our supermarket workers challenge

Listen to me read Aunt Concertina and offer a cool challenge

Listen to me read my poem ‘Lick Lick Riff’ dog poem and offer a doggy cat tiger bat any animal challenge

Check out David Hill’s wonderful photo challenge

Listen to Swapna Haddow read her book and try a rabbit challenge

Try Johanna Aitchison’s hunt the teddy challenges

Ruth Paul reads her muddy poem and I offer muddy challenges

 

kia kaha

keep well

keep imagining

 

 

Poetry Box Audio Spot: Elena de Roo reads ‘Elk’ by Emma Neale

 

 

 

 

Elk drawing by Zac. Zac is 8 years old. He loves reading, playing football and drawing dragons and minotaurs.

 

 

 

‘Elk’ by Emma Neale, published in A Treasury of Poems for Children edited by Paula Green, Random House, 2014, and new edition 2017.

 

 

Elena de Roo is a children’s writer and poet from Auckland. She lives next to Cornwall Park and often makes up stories and poems in her head while going for long walks there, hoping only the cows and sheep notice she is quietly talking to herself.

Emma Neale loves reading books aloud to her children, even her teenager, when she can find him away from the piano or the drums. Her youngest son is such a keen reader he knows more about history than she does. He loves to test her on all the facts she doesn’t know. She has written stories and poems for children, and a picture book that will probably be buried with her because nobody seems to think it’s as funny as she does.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry Box Audio Spot: Elena de Roo reads Wilding Pines

 

 

 

 

Elena is a children’s writer and poet from Auckland. She lives next to Cornwall Park and often makes up stories and poems in her head while going for long walks there, hoping only the cows and sheep notice she is quietly talking to herself.

 

 

 

 

The Treasury Interviews: The Sharks from Adventure School interview Elena de Roo

The Sharks are a reading group in Room 1 at Adventure School in Whitby. They love to read and write and listen to stories and poems. They also love to run, swim and go on the classroom iPads. There is a photo of the whole class and a photo of The Sharks.

Elena de Roo: When she was growing up Elena went to seven different primary schools all around NZ but has lived in Auckland since she was eleven. She likes chips and ice cream (far too much and occasionally together) and has a tortoiseshell cat that sits on her knee and purrs while she writes. Elena writes poems, picture books and quirky stories and has just finished a fantasy novel.

 

The Interview:

We love The Rain Train! What is your favourite book that you have written?

Just between you, The Rain Train is definitely one of my favourites too. It was the first picture book I ever had published. I was SO excited when I found out, one Guy Fawkes night, that it had been accepted by Walker Books Australia. I wrote it on a rainy night when everyone else was asleep and I wouldn’t change any of it. Brian Lovelock (the illustrator) very kindly let me choose my favourite illustration from it to keep. It was very hard to decide, but in the end I picked the one where the train steams over the viaduct.

My eldest daughter likes the Ophelia Wild series best and made me promise to dedicate all of them to her.

We like making poems that rhyme. Is it very hard to write a whole chapter book in rhyme?

Yes, it takes much longer to write it in rhyme than it would in prose, but Ophelia’s story just seemed to start off that way. And (like most things) the more you do it, the easier it gets. I’ve learnt to make sure I have the plot worked out first so I don’t write lots that has to be changed later. Also, going over and over a couple of lines in your head to make them sound the best you can, is a good way to get to sleep at night.

Do all of your stories rhyme?

No, I’ve written some plays, short stories and poems that don’t rhyme and I’ve just finished a fantasy novel.

How many awards have you won for poetry? Do you have one that is very special?

I’ve won three awards, but the most special was the Todd New Writers’ Bursary because this meant I could spend a whole delicious year at home writing poems.

If you wrote a book for the Royal Family, what would it be about?

That’s a tricky one. I live next door to Cornwall Park and there are lots of lambs bleating for their mothers at the moment, so maybe I’d write a book about a lamb called George who loses his bleat and the trouble this gets him into.

p.s. When I was little I loved the poem ‘The King’s Breakfast’ by A. A. Milne.

What happens if you get sick, and you can’t write?

That almost happened when I was writing Zombie Pox (in Ophelia Wild Deadly Detective). I had a deadline to meet and I was horribly behind schedule because I’d procrastinated so much about starting to write the story, and then I got sick as well. I couldn’t sleep at night because I had a horrible cough, so I ended up writing through the night and taking naps during the day for a week or two. Maybe it helped my writing because I was writing about Ophelia being sick too.

Did you have any poems or stories published when you were at school?

When I was nine or ten, I won a competition for writing a poem about the mountain near our town. It was published in the local newspaper and the prize was some movie tickets.

 

Note from Paula: Thanks for the wonderful interview Elena and The Sharks. What great questions and what great answers.  Elena has lots of poems in A Treasury of NZ Poems for Children because she is one of my favourite poets. Her poems are good to read aloud because she really knows how to use her ears when she writes. I also love her Rain Train book because it sounds so good! Her latest book is called The Name at the End of the Ladder (Walker Books). I am taking that on my Hot Spot Poetry Tour.

               

John Parker & Elena de Roo go listing

If you go hunting for list poems by other poets you will discover a real treasure trove. Reading poems by other writers is such a great way to take your own writing on adventures. Try doing your version of the poem you discover. Change things about it. Use their pattern, but put your own words in it.

 

Elena de Roo has written a list of green things, but she has played with the pattern a little and not every line begins with green (both ways work!). She has some great rhyme that helps glue the poem together (soar, draw) and (castle, freckle).

Green, My Crayon

I choose green with dappled speckles

green as sea glass

green as green grass

green as leaves with yellow freckles

Green as sea, and sky, and shore

green, the tower and turret door

in winds of green, its banners soar

green, my castle

green, I draw

©  Elena de Roo

John Parker has written a really cool list poem that is made up of dialogue! It has a definite pattern and a surprising but perfect ending (especially if you are like me and like crisp apples).

Drop, Drop

‘Drop drop,’ said the wind to the seed.

‘Reach, reach,’ said the earth to the root.

‘Drink, drink,’ said the rain to the plant.

‘Up, up,’ said the sun to the tree.

‘Out, out,’ said the tree to the branch.

‘Burst, burst,’ said the branch to the bud.

‘Open. open,’ said the bee to the blossom.

‘Ripen, ripen,’ said the blossom to the apple.

‘Eat, eat,’ said the apple to me ——

So I did!

©  John Parker

This week on NZ Poetry Box and Holiday Challenges

This week we are still playing with list poems. Today, though, I am going tell you about the school holiday challenge. On Tuesday it’s time for poetry play, on Wednesday I will post list poem by Elena de Roo and John Parker, on Thursday I will post my favourite poems from the list-poem challenge (and the winner) and on Friday I will post a poem by a secondary-school student (fingers-crossed!).

NZ Poetry Box is a blog aimed at students up to Year 8 but some secondary students have started following it. So here is your chance. I challenge you to write a list poem (Year 9 to Year 13). Catch up on what Bill Manhire says about list poems (April 11), check out my tips (April 9) and get writing! Send to paulajoygreen@gmail.com by Thursday 5pm. Include your name, age, year and name of school.

Next week the school holidays begin and I would love to post at least a poem a day by a child. This is a safe site for young children and a perfect place to play with words during the holidays. I am happy to post your letters and comments. Get Mum or Dad or Gran to help you.

I will give you some mini challenges throughout this week — but as a holiday challenge you could try one of Bill Manhire’s ideas that he posted last Thursday.  Send your poems to paulajoygreen@gmail.com. Include your name, age, year school. Include your teacher’s name and email if you like. Say it is for the holiday challenge.

Here are Bill’s ideas. I want to try them too!

1. Try imagining what it’s like to be something else, and write as if you are that something else. Maybe you could be an elephant that’s sick of being in the circus. Or an iceberg that’s melting. Or an asteroid that’s about to hit the earth. Or maybe you could write a conversation (or a love poem!) between a stalagmite and a stalactite.

2. Write a brand new nursery rhyme, and put your best friend in it.

3. Write a poem where every line begins with the words “I remember”, but every memory is made-up.

During the holidays, I would also love to post ideas from teachers and parents on writing poems. A single idea or two in a paragraph or two.