Mohammad DOES like poetry!

One of our Y5 pupils recently borrowed Joshua Seigal’s LOLLIES-shortlisted poetry book I Don’t Like Poetry. And guess what?

Mohammad does!

He returned the book to me today in his library session, chuckling at the fun he’d had with the book. When I asked him which was his favourite poem, he told me the second one was the best. This is it:

Resolutions

DAY 1

I won’t be late for school again

I won’t swing in my seat.

I’ll do my best on every test

and I will never cheat.

 

I’ll help with chores around the house.

I won’t get in a rage.

I’ll get a broom and sweep my room

and clean the hamster’s cage.

 

I’ll put my money in the bank.

I won’t spend it on sweets.

I’ll make a pledge to eat more veg

and give up eating meat.

 

I’ll go out jogging round the park.

I’ll try hard to get fit.

I will not shirk, I’ll do the work

and I will never quit.

 

I’ll be the best that I can be

improve in every way.

I will shine bright, and I will write

a poem every day!

 

Day 2

 

This is the humour in the piece – of course resolutions are meant to be broken and after such a build-up of positivity and optimism, this is a great punchline – a blank page with a rubber and a pencil. Hard to capture this here of course… but you get the meaning.

I agreed with Mohammad that this was a fab poem – I could hear myself in those promises (especially the jogging bit and doing more housework).

It’s always wonderful when children choose poetry to read by themselves (rather than me reading it to them) so I thought I’d share this with you today. Poetry can be fun, beautiful, scary, sad … there’s a poem for every emotion.

What’s your favourite poem or poet?

• You can find out more about Joshua Seigal here.
• You can read about the other LOLLIES books here. We have all of the titles in the Library!