In honour of a day honouring poetry ...

 It's New Zealand Poetry Day today!! All sorts of things were planned but we are in Level 4 Lockdown (the strongest type of lockdown) so things have gone online. In honour of a day honouring poetry I thought I'd share some of my own poetry online, too. 

The first poem, Fancy, is one for children. I wrote this years ago when some friends were visiting one bright sunny day and their youngest was getting a bit close to the lavender bush which had a few bees hovering around it. This poem appears in A Treasury of New Zealand Poems for Children (ed. Paula Green, Random House, 2014).

Fancy

Don’t pick the flowers

the bees might follow you home

the cows will come for the buttercups

forget themselves

and eat your grass

leaving little half moons in the mud

that remind you

of Milky Way nights

and cream and honey on your porridge in the morning

The second poem, The Meaning of Life, is for grown ups. It appeared on Paula Green's NZ Poetry Shelf blog June 21st this year (which you can check out here). 

The Meaning of Life

I am not here

I am here

I am not here to ask why I am here

I am here to find answers

I am not here for you

I am here for me

I am not here to demand meaning

or faith

in anything except myself

I am here the only thing I can be sure of

and here I am not so sure

When I am no longer here

the Earth may show as little

or as much care

as if

I was never here

And last but not least, here are some New Zealand writers for young people (including moi) reading some poems they love in celebration of this wonderful art form, on Paula Green's Poetry Box (A New Zealand poetry page for children) with some great poetry writing challenges for children included. Click here.