It's National Poetry Day!

By Maureen Lynas

I had this really great idea,
That I would blog in verse on here.

To celebrate this special day,

With similes I'd have my say.

And metaphors, they would abound.

I'd entertain you with the sound,

Of rhythm, metre, and some rhyme

But then I thought,

That will take time.

So, 

I'm not.

Instead I'm going to celebrate NationalPoetry Day by announcing a brand new poetry group that's about to jump out of hiding and onto the web.

The poets are a bunch of people who love to read and write funny poetry for children. We began as a BI SCBWI ecritique group but we're branching out soon and launching our very own website called 

funEverse 

We'll be setting ourselves poetry challenges and inviting schools to join in with the silliness. A guest school will be appearing on the blog every other month where our poems will be featured side by side with the children's. So please do take a look at our first blog in November. And if you would like to be a guest school then let me know.

The funEversers are:

Alex Craggs, Georgina Kirk, Kathryn Evans, Laura Louise Stewart, Lesley Moss, Maureen Lynas, Meagan Munroe, Mo O’Hara and Rebecca Colby.

It may seem a bit barmy to focus on verse when it is supposed to be difficult to publish it but over the next few days we're going to introduce ourselves and explain why we do what we do. Enjoy. 

First up 

Maureen Lynas 

(That would be me)

Basically, I can't not do it. I have tried to stop, I've been advised to stop, I've even advised others to stop (shame on me) but I seem to be addicted to rhyme. Addicted to rhyme but allergic to poetry. I don't want to examine the human condition (at the moment), or let all my feelings out (at the moment), and the thought of reading Sylvia Plath makes me reach desperately for poems like Albert and the Lion and Matilda 

Verse slips into my stories too. I have a dad living in the attic in one book, he's gone mad and can only speak in verse:  
'Must stay static. In the attic.'

And a frog who introduces himself with:

'I swing through the trees with the greatest of ease,

For I am the prince with four legs and four knees.

My skin is a rainbow, my eyes ruby red,

And I am named Bob, and my father is Fred.

I find funny poems irresistible to write but I love to get kids squirming too. The children's poem below was written in response to an illustration by Sam Zuppardi who actually looks exactly like his picture below.

Sam's illustrations will be featured on our first blog, and you'll have to wait until then to see the illustration that inspired -

Mr MacEvil

Please do believe me, or you could all die!          

For Mr MacEvil is scoffing kid pie!

Kid pie with his eggs, Kid pie with his chips,

Kid pie with his gravy that dribbles on lips.

Kid pie with his beans, kid pie with his peas,

Kid pie with his custard and sprinkles of cheese.

Please do believe me, or you could all die!          

For Mr MacEvil is scoffing kid pie!

Kid pie for his dinner, kid pie for his tea,

Kid pie for a snack that he eats off his knee.        

Kid pie for his breakfast, kid pie for his lunch,      

Kid pie with some bones to munch and to crunch.

Please do believe me, or you could all die!          

For Mr MacEvil is scoffing kid pie!

Kid pie has all gone! You’d better take flight,

Kid pie must be made by MacEvil tonight.

Kid pie needs a kid, to chomp and to chew,

Kid pie needs a you, or a you, or a you!

Please do believe me, or you could all die!          

For Mr MacEvil is BAKING kid pie!

©Maureen Lynas 2012

Tomorrow I'll be introducing 

Rebecca Colby 

 Alex Craggs (he's the one in the middle) 

And Lesley Moss (if I can catch her)