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Gidday and welcome to my Primary School's Poetry Page
For 10 years I toured with both the Queensland and Victorian Arts Councils Schools Touring Programme and met some amazing characters just like you!
We all have a story to tell. When I was at school I had so many amazing 'tales' swirling around in my head, and was so keen to tell them, that I was often a distractive influence in the class. Thankfully I learned to turn my behaviour into something positive and now I use it to entertain people.
Poetry for me starts when I wake up in the morning. I love waking up to the smell of those delicious pancakes that my daughter Sophie is making……
Sometimes my children like to march around and make up songs to march by or skip rope to. These are the poems that I'm sure you might be sharing at lunchtime with your friends. Here's one for you…(say each line and then get your friends to repeat each line as you march together)
MARCHING SONG
LIFE IS PRETTY GOOD TO ME (repeat)
UP MY NOSE WITH A BUMBLE BEE (repeat)
WHO HA! (repeat)
LARDY DA! (repeat)
MY BEST FRIEND'S A MOVIE STAR (repeat)
CHALLENGE. 1
Can you write you very own marching song by following the above pattern? Email me your marching song
My favourite skipping rope song is a putrid poem. If you're squeamish…you might like to pass over this one.
Can you write your very own putrid skipping rope song?
Here's 2 lines to start with
'Down at the Tuckshop waiting for you
My mama's cooking up roadkill stew'.
Poetry As An Instruction
My daughter Sophie came home one day and told me her class was learning about the Planets and their position in relation to the Sun. We wrote this poem to help them.
GRANNY AND THE SNAKE
One of my most popular poems in Primary Schools is Granny And The Snake'. It is based on a true story that actually happened when I was around your age. We don't kill snakes where we live in the bush if we can possibly help it. We respect them and try to live alongside them….but my Granny grew up where there were no hospitals and no Ambulances, so Snakes became her arch enemy and she always had a big pot of boiling water on the wood stove in case a snake turned up at the front door….which they often did….just like this one…
CHALLENGE. 2
I HAVE HIDDEN SEVERAL LIES IN 'GRANNY AND THE SNAKE'. Can you pick the 'lies' If you think you know them, e-mail me and I'll tell you if you located all the lies.
CHALLENGE. 3
Also, why not try and write 1 (one) verse about someone in your life who has offered advice to you eg:
My brother told me when I was eleven
If you play with knives you'll end up in heaven.
I should have listened to my brother Joe
Cause I just amputated my toe.
GOODBYE
Well, I hope you've enjoyed these few poems. They are contained along with many others in my books. If you wish to purchase a book of children's poems just like these…
For Marco's books and more free Poems click here
To Email Marco click here
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Gidday and welcome to my Secondary School page of Poetry
I was often diagnosed at Warwick High School as an attention seeking underachieving student who had heaps of ability, but failed to recognize his talents. Instead, I concentrated my efforts on sport, mates, girls and good times.
So, "what's wrong with that?" you ask. Well nothing, of course, except that at some stage in our lives the work needs to done, the respect needs to be shown, and the pride we have in ourselves needs to be earned not demanded. These lessons have come hard to me in some ways, but since my early twenties I have used Poetry as a method for releasing my emotions, celebrating life and bringing to life the many stories and characters that I am inspired to write about, and in so many ways discovering a little more about myself.
MY HOME TOWN
Warwick.
Old people retire there,
young people can't wait to leave there
(and some actually do).
Up the street
boots wearing cowboy hats
climb into big cars
and dirty utes
that smell of oil, cattle and KFC!
Tough teenagers (with skinny elbows)
stuck out the windows of 83 Geminis,
cruise past the Shopping Centre
shouting "Hey Boofhead!"
to a lucky mate
chatting up two grade ten babes
fiddling with those cool silver neck chains
hot off the $2.00 stand at Silly Solly's.
CHALLENGE
Tell me about your special place, your hometown. Is it like mine?
MY CHILDHOOD
My father was an Italian Migrant builder who lived in a 'fairdinkum' Aussie town and I often thought it was a hard deal being under his thumb. While most other boys had holidays, I was often Dad's labourer on building sites and at the Anglican schools where he worked as a groundsman
It wasn't all bad. He let me have a dog. My favourite pup Lucky was a Cattle Dog left behind by some Cowboys at the Warwick Rodeo when I was about 9 years of age. He had some weird habits, but one day a few years ago whilst visiting Bauhinia Downs State School in Western Queensland, a young boy told me about his own dog who he saw piddling on his Dad's Electric Fence…(and he reckons the dog actually enjoyed it). That inspired the following poem
CHALLENGE.1
Write a verse about your own pet or a fictitious pet.
Eg: I had a pig called Bertha and she looked just like me sister.
I threw a rock to stir her up but sadly I just missed her.
She turned around and charged at me and with one mighty thud
I catapulted backwards landing headfirst in the mud'
POETRY AS A WEAPON
How many times have you ever been greeted with 'How are You', when the person asking doesn't really care (or want to know). Well next time someone does this, you should have this poem at the ready and fire it back them…I bet they never ask again.
In 1995 I was very honoured to receive the 'Spirit Of Waltzing Matilda' Poetry Award, presented to my by the late Slim Dusty for a poem that best depicted the modern spirit of 'Waltzing Matilda'. What do you reckon?
MY FIRST KISS
My sister Valda caught me having my first kiss. She burst into my bedroom and found me pashing off the pillow before running through the house declaring me a weirdo. Oh come on! I was twelve and still practising, but like most young people my dream kiss was something like a Soap Opera….
CHALLENGE. 2
Forget about the rhyme for a moment and rely on the sheer emotion of a moment to see if you can paint a 'word picture' of something that you have experienced. My only advise is to keep it clean and respect the 'editor's advice' eg: what does your school/teacher expect of you???
Eg: A MOTHER'S HUG…………A FOOTY TACKLE……….AN ICE-CREAM DREAM…ETC ETC
A POLICE POEM
Little was I to know, but 'kissing', was not all that would interest me in future years. Something had always attracted me to jobs like the Police Force. I applied after leaving High School and was accepted later that year. After a couple of years serving in Brisbane, I began to focus on Criminal Investigation.
A TRUE CRIME STORY
Early one morning in 1987, at Innisfail in North Queensland, I was called along with other Detectives to investigate the death of an elderly local character Ernest Norton Barnard 84 years of age. His landlord found him, lying in the driveway of his derelict house, having been bashed and left to die by his assailants. The motive appeared to be robbery, but the only thing between vagrancy and Ernest Norton Barnard was that old house. He was not worth a brass razoo. As the investigation unfolded we found we were dealing with Urban Folklore. Two teenage boys had cultivated a belief in the myth that old Ernie had a wad of cash stashed under the bed. So came Payday.
Footnote
I still recall the eldest of the two boys sitting there answering questions in relation to a murder while eating pizza and sipping coke like he was parked in front of the Simpsons. But every now and then you could see his eyes glaze over as he locked into the enormity of this mistake he had made. A wounded, devastated child huddled in the frame of a young man. His field of dreams once lined with visions of who he'd be, and how his life would unfold, was beginning to erode away before his lonely eyes.
As you journey through life know that every action you take, you will be held accountable for, if not by your peers, then by your own conscience. We all make mistakes, but how many of us learn from them?
I hope as you negotiate your teenage years you maintain your focus on the light at the end of the tunnel. School can often appear 'impractical' or 'irrelevant', but rest assured when you reach the end of that tunnel you will be standing on your own two feet. Be ready, and never lose your child-like infatuation with the little things in life….for it is 'moments' we remember the most.
Cheers
Marco Gliori
Well, I hope these poems have let you know a little more about me and about my Poetry. I hope you enjoy writing…I love it.
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