Thursday 7 October 2010

It's National Poetry Day

A couple of poems.  Nothing too deep and meaningful, just ones that I've enjoyed sharing with children because I like the images they create.  And because I like hedgehogs and scarecrows!

  Hedgehog Dances

Underneath the pale magenta moon,
Hedgehog dances to a slow, sad tune
Played by an armadillo band
Sitting on their haunches in the soft, white sand.

Hedgehog dances
In a circle on the shore,
Holding up his spiny head,
Dabbing with his paw,
Winding as a question mark,
Mournful as a sigh,
Gazing up into the moon
With brightly eager eyes.

'Moon, I love you!' Hedgehog sings.
'Moon I want you near!'
But moon just goes on shining bright
And doesn't seem to hear.

Hedgehog on the long, white beach
Dances out his love,
Moon is silent silver
In the starry night above.

Andrew Matthews

Found in this lovely (but out-of-print) book which helped raise funds for the British Hedgehog Preservation Society



The Scarecrow

All winter through I bow my head
Beneath the driving rain;
The North Wind powders me with snow
And blows me black again;
At midnight in a maze of stars
I flame with glittering rime,
And stand, above the stubble, stiff
As mail at morning-prime.
But when that child, called Spring, and all
His host of children, come
Scattering their buds and dew upon
These acres of my home,
Some rapture in my rags awakes;
I lift void eyes and scan
The skies for crows, those ravening foes,
Of my strange master, Man.
I watch him striding lank behind
His clashing team, and know
Soon will the wheat swish body high
Where once lay sterile snow;
Soon shall I gaze across a sea
Of sun-begotten grain,
Which my unflinching watch hath sealed
For harvest once again.

Walter de la Mare



I wonder what poems you like?

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