ComiCouplets (1)

Oh dear, what can the matter be?
Dreary rain is spoiling our Saturdy!




Copyright: Kate Williams



More? Click Humorous or Gardening.
Watch this space for next Comedy Couplet.

Goodbye, fireworks; hello grey gloom!

Well, that's it for light and colour this month. This week's little flurry of firework fun is already over, or as I put it in Remember, remember! (For kids page): 

For a few magic minutes, we all gaze.
Then we have to wait another
three-hundred-and-sixty-five days.

Or is it a leap year?

No, there's nothing for it now but to face up to what must surely be Britain's most unique and challenging feature: November gloom. I'll be taking down my Hallowe'en spooks and firework sparks from the poetry pages here, and replacing them with...?  We'll have to see. Keep an eye out for new themes on all pages, plus something a bit different on its way to my blog posts....

Watch out for the arrival of Comedy Couplets on future posts: first one turning up tomorrow! 

Kate

More firework poems to browse

Firework poetry fest!  I've just added yet more firework poems to my kids' page here, for enjoyment by children and families, and perhaps use by teachers. Most are written to accompany my workshops for schools, and are intentionally simple and accessible, offering launchpads from which young poets can take off with creations of their own.


Writing your own firework poems?  If writing your own, or helping others to, remember that firework poems may take off in any direction you like! Up the page, diagonally across, through a picture, into a recipe (for Bonfire Night?), into a particular poetic format - cinquain, haiku, limerick...? It could be turned into questions, spun into a wish, swung into a song, or swivelled upside down for a look at life below, in which case, how about setting the scene in rhyming couplets? Funny ones?  After all, it's probably chaos down there, what with everybody feeling their way in the dark, slipping and sliding on the muddy grass, colliding with old friends without even recognising them in all their hats and scarves and mufflers and flickering torch-light. There'll be all the watchings and waitings, the 'Oh dears!' and  'Hoorahs!'; the hot-dog munching and toffee-apple dropping and goodness knows what all down below there!  So get writing!


Copyright:  All poems on this site are by me and are therefore my copyright, so if anyone would like to use any of them for public or commercial use, please contact me first - thanks!  Kate Williams

Getting snap-crackle-pop-proof.

Happy Bonfire Night tomorrow, all you hardy, energetic types! But mind the toffee apple when you cover your ears for those bomb-blast-sound-alikes, won't you! I always used to have to march the kids straight up to the bathroom on return from the soggy school field, and attempt, with rusty scissors in frozen fingers, to cut the toffee out of their hair, all round their ears, leaving each with a nightmare haircut with which to face school next morning.


If, like me, you're shying away this year and planning to watch from the warmth of your sitting room (if at all), or if you have children, or are a child, who would rather read a poem about fireworks than go outside and watch them, you'll find a few new ones on my other website, poemsforfun.wordpress.com, blog page. You'll also find some here, as you've probably gathered, on For kids page. You'll also find various other Novemberish and Hallowe'enish verses on Humorous and Nature pages.

Teachers: if you're a teacher, and would like more suggestions for firework poetry sessions and poem formats (other than the ones on your page here), please get in touch! I have plenty more up my sleeve. However, if lots of you want lots, e.g. poem formats, sample support poems, poetry frames to print out, tips or ideas for lesson plans, etc., I may have to start charging a small amount, via PayPal probably. Any views on  this? Let me know!

Meanwhile, looking forward to the pretty sparkles, and lining up some bang-proof music ready to stick on the hi-fi, to save me having to keep checking the News just in case we are at war after all!

Have fun!

Poems for all...

Now that this site has been going for a few weeks, I think it's time for a summary of its contents, so here we go.

My aim is to offer a sprinkling of enjoyment to browsers through my poetry.
Blog posts - these tend to consist of observations and ponderings about all and sundry related to poetry-writing, and to the themes I write about.

Poetry pages: 

Humorous - display of poems for adults, probably best suited to greying cynics like me. The majority are from my collection, The Mad of Modern, which I perform for groups, clubs, societies, and anyone who wants to add a splash of fun to an event.  

Gardening - display of humorous poems for gardeners, from my collection, The Grim Side of Gardening, which I perform for gardening clubs.

Nature - display of poems about nature, some from my collection, Wildlife Poems; others published in various anthologies, others again, unpublished. These are mostly thoughtful, serious and atmospheric in tone, though humour may be found here too. Some verses feature in my occasional performances for reading circles or literary appreciation groups, along with poems on other themes, examples of which can be found on my other website, poemsforfun.wordpress.com, Ponderings page. 

For kids - display of assorted poems and rhymes to suit a range of age groups and reading levels. Some of these are published in anthologies produced by various national UK publishers; others are from my book, Wildlife Poems, and my earlier self-published book, Swinging through the Sky (now out of print). The page also includes poems written specifically for the season, or related topic.  Parents and teachers may like to share these poems with their children or pupils, perhaps using one or two as launch pads for creativing writing at home or school.

For teachers - presentation of ideas, tips, and sample session-plans for poetry-writing in the classroom, based on my own approaches in my workshops for schools.

Content of all pages will be changed from time to time.

All poems and other writings on this site are by me, Kate Williams.


Copyright of all material on all pages: Kate Williams.  All rights reserved.
Please contact me first if you wish to use any of the content for any public or commercial purpose. Thank you.

 

November's impish adolescence...

These early November days don't know what to do with themselves. They're like teenagers, swinging from mood to mood, from image to image. They're in excitable, emotional turmoil all around me.

Down my chimney, November's mumbling and murmuring, grumbling and chuckling like nobody's business, setting me springing back and forth to the heating control knobs, and to the on-off switch of the radio in search of more palatable sounds.

At the window it's tapping, flapping, leaping about like a prankster, flip-flipping from radiance to misery, from laughter to tears - and getting me leaping too, in and out the house with the washing. It's fidgeting with the treetops, fooling with the frantic, fleeing leaves - catching and freeing them, spilling them over the heads of bustle-braced shoppers, along with a hatful of shine or rain. Up and down the street it's toying with detritus: a plastic bag here, a sweet wrapper there, teasing them, peek-a-boo-style, with flash-light and rattle, keeping the street on its toes.

A-jitter with echoes of  Hallowe'en, electrified with anticipation for Bonfire Night, elated with memories of summer, despondent at the drum-beat of encroaching winter, early November is all in a silly old dither. A calming cup of tea is what it needs... But no matter: here comes winter, marching with its whipping cane, set to knock this youthful spirit squarely on the head. 









Copyright: Kate Williams
All rights reserved.

Fireworks for great works!

Yes, they've started. After all, it's November, isn't it? Remember, remember the start of November, we say these days. So already the whines and crackles and thuds are impinging on our feet-up-by-the-fire time of an evening; the World War III impressions are screaming and flaring around our walls and windows and rooftops, and I can't pretend I'm over-excited about them at my age, after the first peep or two through the curtains. But I am excited about the firework poetry that children will be producing for me next week, in one school and another, for children's creativity never ceases to amaze me, and with such a vibrant and versatile theme as this, I know I'm in for a treat!

Fireworks offer up so much! Noises like no others, hues and blends to daydream over, shapes and swings that take your breath away: beauty, grace, splendour, audacity - a host of elements too multiple to list, and all too exceptional to ever quite describe, all reaching to the skies - making the gaping blackness their stage and playground! Their potential for creative reflection is infinite, with opportunities for imagery, mind-spinning; and whatever ideas I may prompt to fire the first sparks, those children, whoever they may be, will come up with more, marvellous more, and more and more!

Artists, musicians, dancers, and other creative thinkers will, I'm sure, be welcoming the fireworks similarly, and hooray for that! A bonanza of fireworks deserves a bonanza of celebrations. No wonder we all reach up to catch these extraordinary wonders in any and every way we can - except literally.

As for the muffled, merry crowds below, hobbling through the freezing mud and cheering into the icy sky - well, there's another pageant's-worth of potential to explore!