Transcript

SOUND - Walking

Hi everyone! Little Dazzy Donuts here with a special bonus episode of Kids’ Poetry Club. I’m heading into the Club early today to take a look at the poems that we’ve already received for the Spring competition. The deadline is April 30th, and so there’s still plenty of time to send in more Spring poems. It has been so wonderful to receive the poems and drawings that have already come in. A massive THANK YOU to everyone who has sent them in! To help me manage all of them, Queenie and Chicken spent yesterday evening sorting your poems into piles. Hopefully they made lots of progress. Well, I’m here now … let’s see how they did.

SOUND – unlocking and opening door

Let’s turn the light on and see where the poems are.

SOUND – light switch.

SOUND – gentle snoring.

Oh my! Queenie’s here asleep with her head on a table. Gosh, I wonder if she’s been here all night! There are certainly stacks of poems all over the Club, so someone has been busy!

Queenie: “Snore ….. let me check the kitchen …. Snore ….. oh no, we’re out of tuna …. Snore …”

Poor, Queenie. She’s talking in her sleep. She must be exhausted, and there’s no sign of Chicken. I bet she’s asleep in one of the cupboards again. Well, I better figure out a way of waking Queenie up so that she can tell me all about these stacks of poems. Ummm … I don’t want to startle her. I know – I’ll play the intro music. That will definitely wake her up. So, while I play the music and wake up Queenie, get wriggling around to find a comfortable spot. Welcome to this bonus episode of Kids’ Poetry Club!

MUSIC

Hi Queenie. Queenie. Are you awake now?

Queenie: (Yawn. Waking Sounds). Oh my gosh! Little Dazzy Donuts. Was I asleep? I was having a nightmare about not having any tuna for my tuna and banana sandwiches. It was awful! I’m glad you woke me up! What time is it?

Well, it’s the morning, Queenie. I think you may have slept in the Club the whole night.

Queenie: I did? Oh dear. Let’s see …. I remember that Postie Dale delivered all of the poems in boxes. Then, Chicken and I started reading them. There were just so many, and they were all so good. I wanted to make sure that we read them all … but, after a few hours, my eyelids started to feel heavy, and I told Chicken that I was going to take a short nap. That’s the last thing I remember until you woke me up with the intro music.

Well, it looks like you’ve made amazing progress with the poems. Look at all of these stacks of papers.

Queenie: Thank you! We were … what’s the word? … methodical. That’s the word. We were methodical. Chicken and I agreed that we’d read the poems, and put them into categories. Although it turns out that Chicken doesn’t like cats, and so we couldn’t have categories. She insisted we called them henegories!

Ha! Well, whatever you call them, you certainly have a lot of them.

Queenie: Yes – we do! We each took half of the poems. But we couldn’t agree on the actual henegories to use. So, we actually used two different systems. Here are my stacks… over here, along this front wall.

Oh yes. I like how you labelled them clearly. Thank you! Let’s see … we have a stack labelled Flowers.

Queenie: Yes – that contains all of the poems that are about Spring Flowers.

Wonderful. Then, your other stacks are labelled Trees, Animals, Weather, Bees. That’s so helpful! Now, what are all of the poems over there along the back wall?

Queenie: Well, those are the poems that Chicken read and put into henegories.

And why is there just one massive stack of poems?

Queenie: Oh …. That’s just Chicken’s system. Like I said, we had different systems. I stacked mine by topic. But Chicken just wanted to sort her poems into two stacks – one for the poems that included a chicken in them, and one for the poems that didn’t. Well, it turns out that none of the poems have chickens … and so Chicken just has one large stack of non-chicken poems.

Now, I know that you and Chicken aren’t the competition judges – but I bet you found some poems that you both really liked.

Queenie: We did … we found so many. Chicken helped me by putting her footprint in ink on the poems we wanted to show you. Now, where’s Chicken? Chicken? …. Chicken?

SOUNDS

Queenie: There you are! Have you just woken up?

SOUNDS

Queenie: Yes – me too! Well, I’m glad you’re awake now!  Can you remind me where the poems are for Little Dazzy Donuts?

SOUNDS

Queenie: Ah yes … here they are! Thanks, Chicken. Why don’t you wriggle around and find a comfortable spot, and you can listen to these too. Here’s the first one.

Excellent. Ah – I see that this first one comes from David in Australia, and is called “What Is Spring?” What a great question. Queenie, we have a recording of David reding his own poem. Why don’t you play it so that everyone can hear what Spring means to him.

Queenie: Here goes …

SOUND of switch turning on.

David: What is spring? Flowers are spring. Beautiful blooms slowly opening. What is spring? Baby birds are spring. Hatching from eggs with soft feathered wings. What is spring? Buzzing bees are spring. Dancing on flowers as the birds sing. What is spring? New life is spring. Miracles of nature about to begin.

Queenie: Oooohhhhh! I like that poem, Little Dazzy Donuts. I really like the images David uses – especially buzzing bees dancing on flowers! If I was a bee, I’d buzz a little tune and dance to it on flowers.

I bet you would, Queenie. Thank you, David – how wonderful to hear your poem, and thank you for sending it in from Australia! I’m going to look at the flowers in my garden to see the buzzing bees dancing on them. So, Queenie, do you have another poem with a chicken footprint on.

Queenie: Ummm…. Let’s see. This one has tuna and banana sandwich stains on it! Whoops! Let me wipe those off with a tissue. YIPPEE – this poem also has a chicken footprint on it. Here it is.

Thanks, Queenie. Let’s see. Oh yes, this poem is called “Spring Is Here”, and was written by Zion, who lives in England. Queenie, can you play Zion’s recording for us please.

SOUND of switch turning on.

Zion: Spring is here, spring is here. Winter is gone, flowers appear. Three birds begin to sing. Four bicycles begin to ring. Five children jump the rope. Spring is here. I hope, I hope.

Queenie: My gosh, Little Dazzy Donuts. Zion’s poem is so full of hope. I can just picture Winter ending, and Spring starting … and when it does, there’s so much activity. The birds are singing. Kids are playing. When Spring comes around, I always go on lots of hikes and visit all of the places I couldn’t get to during Winter.

You’re right, Queenie. Spring is full of hope, and we come out of our homes after a dark, cold Winter, and it’s like life restarts. Zion did such a great job of describing that. Thank you, Zion!

So, Queenie, do you have another Chicken footprint poem.

Queenie: Yes I do! Actually, this poem one has one, two, three, four, five, six footprints on it! Six footprints!!!!! What does that even mean? Chicken, what does it mean if you put six ink footprints on a poem?

SOUNDS – chicken

Queenie: Ah … that makes sense! Little Dazzy Donuts, Chicken says that it means that she accidentally stepped on the ink pad and walked all over the poem! Oh well … fortunately, we can still see all of the words. It’s from Dylan in England. Here, I’ll play Dylan’s recording for you.

Dylan: ‘Where is God?’ the people say, As the bombs fall, And the cities crumble, As the children starve, And their tummies rumble, As the air we breathe chokes us, And the icebergs melt, As the earth burns, And our fears are felt. As people kill, And the streets are full of dangers, As we live our lives, And our neighbours become strangers. “Where is hope?’ the people say, As the sun rises, And the birds sing, As the moon and stars shine, And Winter turns to Spring, As children laugh and play, And friendships are made, As music fills the day, And our fears begin to fade. ‘Here is God’ the people say.

Thank you, Dylan. Your poem does a wonderful job of highlighting how Winter can feel so challenging, and how Spring then provides a much needed sense of hope. I like the idea of Spring being here the children laugh and play, and friendships are made. Thank you so much for submitting your poem, and your recording too. Okay, Queenie, who is up next?

Queenie: Let me see. Oh, this one here has a lovely chicken footprint. It’s a poem from Emily from England, and her poem is called Hare Today. She reads is soooo well. Here, let me play it for you now.

Emily: Hare today, Gone tomorrow, the rabbit came, with no sorrow. Hare tomorrow, gone today, the rabbit just hopped away. Hare today then gone back, the rabbit will keep coming back. Gone back then hare, the rabbit is doing a dare. Hare today then ran out, the rabbit leaves without a doubt. Hare today and is staying, the rabbit is playing and playing. Hare today, quick as a flash, the rabbit runs in a dash. Hare today, hare tomorrow, the rabbit is eating sorrel. Gone today, gone tomorrow, we feel great sorrow. Gone tomorrow, gone today, the rabbit hasn't had a play.

Thank you, Emily. I really like how your poem plays on the word Hare. The line “Hare today, gone tomorrow” really made me giggle! With the rabbit being gone today and gone tomorrow, I hope he comes back soon to continue playing in the Spring sunshine. Thank you for writing your poem, and reading it so nicely.

Queenie: Little Dazzy Donuts, I have so many poems here with chicken footprints on them, and I know we’re running out of time. Do you think we have enough time for one more today, and then we can listen to more next week?

I love that idea Queenie. Let’s listen to one more today, and then we’ll do another bonus episode next week.

Queenie: Oooohhhh …. I love a bonus episode. Okay, I’d love to finish with this poem. Chicken made a really large ink footprint on this one. This poem comes from Frida, who lives in the United States, and her poem is called “Spring”. I’ll play her recording now.

Frida. Spring. Flowers Blooming. Warm Sun Shining. Birds Flying all around. Animals peek out of dens, and see... No more snow, is on the ground! I come out of my house. A bumblebee flies by. What a fuzzy little thing! They come out at spring. I touch it, but ouch! A sting! I regret touching that thing.

Wow! Frida – I really like your poem. I’ve never been stung by a bee … but I have been stung by a wasp, and that hurt. Not for long … but long enough to ensure that I moaned about it to everyone I saw that day. What about you, Queenie – have you ever been  stung by a bee?

Queenie: No I haven’t. Bees and I are friends. When I go on a hike, I talk to the bees as they fly by, and I like listening to the music they make with their buzzing. They never seem to sting me. I wonder if the bees have a name for me – Like “Queenie, Friend of the Bees”?

I bet they do, Queenie. Okay, well a massive THANKS to Frida for her wonderful poem. Thank you so much for sending it into the competition

Queenie: As that was our last poem for this episode, I’ll save all of the others for next week. You know what, that last poem about bees has given me a really good idea for how we can make next week’s bonus episode even more special. Ooohhhh, I can’t wait to surprise you with my idea next week!

Well, Queenie, that sounds really interesting, and also a little ominous. Based on your past surprises, I should probably be both excited and worried. For sure, I’m looking forward to next week’s bonus so we can hear more competition poems read by their poet authors, and also find out exactly what surprise Queenie has in store for me. In the meantime, let’s wrap up this week’s bonus by saying a special THANK YOU to Queenie and Chicken for all of their hard work, and most importantly to the five poets we heard from today: David, Zion, Dylan, Emily, and Frida. If you want to enter the Spring competition like they did, just check out the details at our website, kidspoetryclub.com. I can’t wait to read your poem, or see your drawing.

Before we go, I should remind you that we’ll have a normal 15-minute episode on Monday.

Queenie: I wonder what the topic will be?

Well, Queenie, we’ll find out in just a few days’ time.

It has been so lovely to spend time with you all today! I hope you enjoyed yourself, and hope you’ll be back for more next time the Club meets. Queenie, can you play the music for us while I read some more of the poems.

Queenie: Sure can. Now … which button is it again? Ummm … there are just so many buttons. Ummmm … I bet it’s this button here.

SOUND

Queenie: Oh no, that was the light switch. Now we can’t see anything. Hang on … let me find the music button …. Oh gosh, I think I just turned the toaster on.  Ah, there we go! Now, where’s the light switch!!!???? It’s just so dark in here.

MUSIC