This is just to let you know that the 'We Are Poets!' anthology of children's poetry is now available to borrow from Warrington libraries, so if you use those libraries, please check it out. Feedback is always welcome, and let's be realistic here, I'm hoping that the libraries will order more copies if the book proves popular! So, please borrow a copy and read it aloud with your children.

The book is also on sale in a sweet shop - yes, that's a sweet shop Gordon Zola! The sweet shop in question is newly opened yet deliciously old fashioned. You could take Mr Zola's Sweet Rapper poem in there and probably buy everything on his list. So, buy some sweets and a book of poetry from: The Sweet Shop, 8 Eagle Brow, Lymm, Cheshire.

The 'We Are Poets!' anthology is still available to preview or purchase from www.mucusart.co.uk/wap.htm and if you're not familiar with Mucusart Publications the site is well worth a visit anyway as there's lots of stuff there of interest to poets and fiction writers alike.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with a sample poem from 'We Are Poets!' Other samples can be found at www.creativewomensnetwork.co.uk/CWNWeArePoets.htm Thanks for reading!

Memory Beach

 

At weekends, on holidays, in all sorts of weather,

With swimsuits and wellies we go to the beach,

With buckets of upside-down sand we build castles,

And dig moats around them that fill up with sea.

 

We gather dry starfish as brittle as biscuits,

Driftwood sandpapered and washed by the waves;

Pebbles, glass smooth, shaped by years in the ocean,

We sift through the flotsam for shells in shy coves.

                      

We ponder the rock pools and wonder of mermaids,

Tell tall tales of jellyfish stings and jump clear,

Dare to touch seaweed and dead crabs, so stinky,

Jabbing and jousting a snapped craggy claw.

 

As pirates swashbuckling, we plunder dune islands,

Tumbling down gullies of hot windblown sand.

Playing cool cowboys and super Sioux Indians,

We slay mutant monsters until the day’s end.

 

Back by the bay, the tide’s turning, waves breaking,

Invading the shoreline, the swell of the sea 

Floods moats; our fortress defences fall crumbling,

Collapsing sandcastles that sweep clean away.

 

***

 “This is a collection that should be in every school library…

a wonderful book by a great poet!”

(Jim Bennett, Managing Editor of The Poetry Kit)