Sunday, August 24, 2008

Week 7


WOODPILE

Mum screams
Dad and I
come running
and my sister grins

she’s been under the woodpile
again
holds gently in her hand
not a lizard
or a grass snake
but a hairy-legged
beady-eyed
wolf spider
“it tickles,” she says

I feel those
tickling legs
up my shirt
in my hair
down my back
all day.

from Farm Kid (Penguin)

Sherryl says: This came from a real experience when I was a kid. I was scared of spiders (I still am!) and my grandmother thought she could help me to get over it by actually holding a spider in my hand. She couldn’t understand why I screamed and ran away! She had no trouble picking one up at all.

Sherryl Clark has been writing poetry for over thirty years. Her first verse novel Farm Kid won the 2005 NSW Premier’s Award for Children’s Books. Her second, Sixth Grade Style Queen (Not!) was recently awarded an Honour Book in the CBCA awards. Sherryl prefers to write poems that don’t rhyme, but she loves rhythm and language in all their aspects.

Poetry exercise: What is something you are really scared of? Is it spiders? Mice? Heights? Eating cauliflower? Write a poem that describes your feelings at being confronted by your fear – try not to use the word feel. Try to create a word picture that shows the reader what it’s like!

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