The Children’s Poetry Archive

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John has recently recorded 50 of his poems to be included in the Children’s Poetry Archive. You can hear John reading some of his poems at www.poetryarchive.org

A CD  'John Foster Reading from his poems' can be purchased from The Poetry Bookshop Online price £12.99

National Poetry Month

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April is National Poetry Month in the USA. Each year, poet Greg Pincus edits 30 Poet/30 Days, a celebration of children’s poetry at his blog (http://gottabook.blogspot.com). Throughout April, he posts daily a poem which is previously unpublished by a different poet who writes for children/teenagers. This year he is including one of John’s unpublished poems – Add a Letter, Find a Word.

Poet of the Week

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In October, John Foster gave a reading at the Oxford Children’s Book Group’s 20^th Birthday Party, held at the Story Museum, Oxford.

For the week beginning 19 November John Foster was Poet of the Week at West Coker Primary School, Somerset. The pupils in Voyager Class e-mailed John Foster questions and wrote poems in response to some of his poems.

Here’s one that Emily wrote after reading ‘Magic Horse’:

 

Murtle the Sea Turtle

Murtle the sea turtle

Swim away

Take me to where

The bears all play.

 

Murtle the sea turtle

Your shell is so green

Swim away to a place

Where the kids aren’t so mean.

 

Murtle the sea turtle

Swim away

Take me to where

The fairies play.

 

Murtle the sea turtle

Your shell is so green

Take me to where

The sea-lions are seen.

 

Murtle the sea turtle

You swim in my dreams

You take my troubles away

They disappear it seems.

 

Murtle the sea turtle

Swim away

Take me to where

The bears all play.

Bookfeast Poetry Competition Winners

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The Bookfeast Poetry Competition was won by Tom Doherty of Radley Primary School with his poem ‘How I Used to Be’.

How I used to be

I started with a big bang,

Plants and animals grew on my surface,

Everything was perfect, when I began.

 

Then the humans came,

They stalked the earth,

Killing animals to feed themselves,

They invented fire, and it’s still scorching my soul.

 

Settlements sprang up,

Spoiling my beautiful countryside,

Towering castles, siege and bloodshed,

War had begun.

 

Empires rose, empires fell,

Countries were conquered,

Factories came, I gave a startled yell,

I was starting to feel conquered.

 

 

Runners-up included Grace Foakes of Cropredy Primary School for her poem ‘The Conker’

The Conker

The conker looks like a wooden doorknob,

sitting on the door.

It reminds me of chilly Autumn afternoons,

climbing up trees.

It makes me feel strangely satisfied.

It feels like a cold stone,

tossed beneath the wheels of a carriage.

It seems to sit there all alone,

but no one knows what the conker has been through!

It will always be an autumn sign,

waiting in its prickly shell!