Playing with Words

Today, two long awaited packages arrived from Amazon (always the best kind of delivery). Inside were the remainder of my set books for the OU course in Children's Literature starting in October. I have been devouring these books, rereading everything from Harry Potter to Little Women. To be honest, I have enjoyed them much more this time around. Of course, there is also new literature to be enjoyed, much of which arrived this morning.

One of the books in my parcel was 100 Best Poems for Children, put together by Puffin, 2001, 2002. Inside I found lots of old favourites and back came memories of school recitals and certain musicals about cats. One poem struck out at me, as I am the sort of person who likes playing with lists of words, especially when I am finding writing tough.. I write lists of words I love or hate or share sounds: I could go on. Anyway, I share it with you below.

The Word Party

Loving words clutch crimson roses,

Rude words sniff and pick their noses,

Sly words come dressed up as foxes,

Short words stand on cardboard boxes,

Common words tell jokes and gabble,

Complicated words play scrabble,

Swear words stamp around and shout,

Hard words stare each other out,

Foreign words look lost and shrug,

Careless words trip on the rug,

Long words slouch with stooping shoulders,

Code words carry secret folders,

Silly words flick rubber bands,

Hyphenated words hold hands,

Strong words show off, bending metal,

Sweet words call each other 'petal',

Small words yawn and suck their thumbs,

Till at last the morning comes,

Kind words give out farewell posies...

Snap! The dictionary closes.

Richard Edwards