Next Thursday it's national Poetry-day here in Belgium (and the Netherlands). The theme this year is 'poems about things'. On Thursday though, I'm only teaching Dutch for one hour. The rest of the day I'm teaching English. The level of English is very very low, so I'm looking for some fun easy poems about things. Any suggestions?

Let's say this is something the students will be able to understand:

This is just to say
I have eaten the plums
that were
in the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

William Carlos Williams

SNOWBALL
by Shel Silverstein

I made myself a snowball
As perfect as could be.
I thought I'd keep it as a pet
And let it sleep with me.

I made it some pajamas
And a pillow for its head.
Then last night it ran away,
But first- it wet the bed

Today is
National Poetry Day
Yet another
Reason
I do not
Live in Belgium or the Netherlands

Ace

WillyWonka said:

Thank you ! This is exactly what I'm looking for !

Anymore suggestions? It's really a hard search. My knowledge of English poetry is very limited, and typing 'poems about things' in Google just leads me to crappy blogs.

Mrs Moon

Mrs Moon
sitting up in the sky
little old lady
rock-a-bye
with a ball of fading light
and silvery needles
knitting the night


Cake

i wanted one life
you wanted another
we couldn't have our cake
so we ate eachother.

both by Roger McGough

jami0mckay said:

Thanks ! The first one is certainly useful...

MarieLouise said:

this one may be too long...

The Trouble with Snowmen by Roger McGough
'The trouble with snowmen,'
Said my father one year
'They are no sooner made
than they just disappear.

I'll build you a snowman
And I'll build it to last
Add sand and cement
And then have it cast.

And so every winter,'
He went on to explain
'You shall have a snowman
Be it sunshine or rain.'

And that snowman still stands
Though my father is gone
Out there in the garden
Like an unmarked gravestone.

Staring up at the house
Gross and misshapen
As if waiting for something
Bad to happen.

For as the years pass
And I grow older
When summers seem short
And winters colder.

The snowmen I envy
As I watch children play
Are the ones that are made
And then fade away.

Puddin'



I have a little kitty cat
Puddin' is her name.

She loves to cuddle up with me
I love to do the same.

She has a coat of soft gray fur
And stripes all running through.
If you would like to play with her,
She would love to play with you.

She curls up on my stomach,
And she purrs really loud.
She is a very loving cat,
and she makes me very proud.

When she wants me to get out of bed,
She lets out a loud MEOW.
Oh, I hear her calling me,
I have to feed her now

~awe

FreeSpirit said:

Very cute

I need poems about inanimate 'things' though.

MarieLouise said:

I figured that much, after the fact... But it was too cute not too.

~Shoot me.

here is another short poem by shel silverstein, and a few others. i hope you will find a few of them useful.



My Beard
by Shel Silverstein

"My beard grows down to my toes,
I never wears no clothes,
I wraps my hair
Around my bare,
And down the road I goes."

-----

What Does the Bee Do?
by Christina Rossetti

"What does the bee do?
Bring home honey.
And what does Father do?
Bring home money.
And what does Mother do?
Lay out the money.
And what does baby do?
Eat up the honey."

-----

Roses
by George Eliot

"You love the roses - so do I. I wish
They sky would rain down roses, as they rain
From off the shaken bush. Why will it not?
Then all the valley would be pink and white
And soft to tread on. They would fall as light
As feathers, smelling sweet; and it would be
Like sleeping and like waking, all at once!"


-----


The Fish
by William Butler Yeats

"Although you hide in the ebb and flow
Of the pale tide when the moon has set,
The people of coming days will know
About the casting out of my net,
And how you have leaped times out of mind
Over the little silver cords,
And think that you were hard and unkind,
And blame you with many bitter words."

-----


The Cow
Robert Louis Stevenson

"The friendly cow, all red and white,
I love with all my heart:
She gives me cream with all her might,
To eat with apple tart.

She wanders lowing here and there,
And yet she cannot stray,
All in the pleasant open air,
The pleasant light of day;

And blown by all the winds that pass
And wet with all the showers,
She walks among the meadow grass
And eats the meadow flowers."

-----


The Rainbow
Christina Rossetti

"Boats sail on the rivers,
And ships sail on the seas;
But clouds that sail across the sky
Are prettier than these.

There are bridges on the rivers,
As pretty as you please;
But the bow that bridges heaven,
And overtops the trees,
And builds a road from earth to sky,
Is prettier far than these."


The Wind
Christina Rossetti

"Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you;
But when the leaves hang trembling
The wind is passing through.

Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I;
But when the trees bow down their heads
The wind is passing by."

-----


Trees
Sarah Coleridge

"The Oak is called the king of trees,
The Aspen quivers in the breeze,
The Poplar grows up straight and tall,
The Peach tree spreads along the wall,
The Sycamore gives pleasant shade,
The Willow droops in watery glade,
The Fir tree useful in timber gives,
The Beech amid the forest lives."

Things
Is a difficult word to rhyme,
I guess many words are or we would do it all the time.
Perhaps when a phone rings,
We think of the things we have to say,
Or what we've been doing all fucking day.

Excluding the needless details,
Like that we took a particularly large shit,
Or spilt the milk and didn't clean it.

Things can be fun,
Unless they kill. Then they're not.

benyamin said:

jami0mckay said:

Oh yes indeed, what a beautiful closer of this thread, Ben !

My lessons worked out pretty fine, my students weren't too enthousiastic, but then again, they're almost never !

And now for some good personal news: yesterday evening I've been asked by another poet to be his guest-poet in his upcoming book !



Pretty good poetry-day for me ! Now enjoy yours, orgers !

There In the corner - Feb 2008



Use me in the corner,
Just fuck me with pointless abandon love,
DJ, Crank that stupid beat a thousand times,
hand in glove,


Suck me off without a care,
For who I am or what I desire,
Use me in the corner of the dancefloor,
Sublimate my past regrets in the goddamned fire!


Don't look up lest we suffocate,
The dancing minions slither packed like a nest of snakes,
lightning in beams of colored lights,
cast harsh truths on all faces, sincere and fake,


Use me in the corner,
Yeah, over there by the guy selling bean,
Smoke me till I'm vapor,
But do it in the riot of gyrating torsos, so my shame can not be seen.


There in the corner.



--imago Feb 2008

My poem about a train...Happy Poetry Day!

“The Train Tracks”

A midnight train slips quickly through the countryside
Bleeding it’s way all along and onwards
Past famous landmarks and known map symbols
Fast cutting trees in seconds
And turning whole cities into blurs and suddens
Creating a way of slicing the moment
But finding small time to stop off now and again-
To let the passengers work or visit.



© 2007 Steven Pottle

Wow ! This thread 'poems about things' is becoming a 'poems by orgers'-thread ! Keep it going... I'll keep reading...

stevenpottle said:

this poem is for applekisses:


"Mouse to Mouth"

One night as I lay trying to sleep
I heard in my room a mysterious "squeak!"
I'd heard it before -
Could it be my neighbors next door? Or perhaps a ghost on my floor?
I don't know, but it gives me the creeps.
And my cat doesn't care
he just sits and stares
and waits for more treats of egg cream.
So I pull my blankets up under my chin
and try returning to my dreams once again
when suddenly I feel tiny feet on my bed,
running across my face, then up onto my head!
A mouse, a mouse!
Did you hear me? A mouse! There's a MOUSE on my head!
I brushed him away and sat up straight in my ire
and demanded he tell why he'd have such desire
"Why oh why, Mr. Mouse," I ask "as I try to retire,
would you climb 'cross my face and then run towards my mouth?"
And in a trembling small voice, my wee foe he replied
"So sorry, good sir, but I thought it the door to my houthe!"

WillyWonka said:

Very cute. I only don't know what a 'houthe' is.

MarieLouise said:

houthe=house

this mouse has a lisp.

WillyWonka said:

It's what I thought, but still Poetic freedom is hard to grasp in other languages...

Where are you taking me?
This hold you have over me
Like cattle, wide-eyed
Numbed by aversed eyes
Light hardly iluminates the present
And the future is in the dark
The steady thump lulling
But the smell keeps me awake
Where are you taking me?

MarieLouise said:

thats quite so.

you know, although i wrote this poem some time ago, ive only realised just now after this exchange with you that the lisp premise would pethaps be better communicated and make more sense if the line read "Tho thorry, good thir, but I thought it the door to my houthe!" so thank you!

I thought this tread was titled "Poems about thighs"...

I brought two home to fill my needs,
And lit the room with incense and candles,
I fucked a hole to watch it bleed,
And downed more bean than most can handle,

I slept with 2, and sometimes 3,
Just to find a warm safe place,
But once the month was over, see
The lust of life had drained from my goddamned face,

Six years, a tight rope torn asunder,
A girl so lost upon her meandering path,
Don’t touch me now, in this room ‘o gorgeous blunder,
You written on my soul, already, a stone cold epitaph,

And you can fuck this hole until it bleeds,
And make me search darkness I can’t see,
But god will punish us both in his jealousy and greed,
Cause he likes it when we’re on our goddamned knees!

-Imago Feb 2008





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[Edited 1/31/08 18:37pm]