Take 3: Poets
VALERIE BLOOM
Clerihew
Valerie Bloom
reflected with gloom,
that she couldn’t play music, draw pictures or sew hems,
so she took revenge on fate by writing poems.
Ode
Around the world you’ve read your poems,
And they can now be found,
In books, newspapers, exam rooms,
And on the underground.
A Smarties bronze for your book, Fruits,
A cup from ‘The Voice’ newspaper,
An honorary degree from the university of Kent
Made you yodel, laugh and caper.
What if those deadlines leave you stressed?
You still give thanks you’ve been so blessed.
Elegy
In school you liked to learn your lessons off by heart,
Committing things to memory you developed to an art,
You enjoy performing poems, word for word, in front of classes,
But now, you struggle to remember where you left your glasses.
Couplet
My verse I try to fill with fun and frolic uncontrolled,
Time enough for sad reflection later, when I’m old.
Latest book
A Twist in the Tale (ed), a collection of poems with surprise endings (Macmillan, 0 330 39899 7, £4.99 pbk)
TONY MITTON
Clerihew
Tony Mitton
at a very young age had been bitten
by the bug whose infection instils in the veins a delight
to read and write
Ode
You shook your head and praised the skies –
you’d won a Smarties Silver Prize
for a poetry book (beyond belief!):
The Red & White Spotted Handkerchief!
In Sheffield, Portsmouth and Dundee
your Spookyrumpus brought you glee.
In Nottingham your Royal Raps
came first and earned you lots of claps.
Aren’t you the luckiest of chaps?
Elegy
If you should merely write your poetry,
though happy and fulfilled, you’d soon be skint.
Give thanks for picture books and comic verse!
For poetry goes so swiftly out of print.
Couplet
When I begin to write blank verse, each time
I get the urge to rhythm and to rhyme…
Latest book
All Afloat on Noah’s Boat , ill. Guy Parker-Rees (Orchard, 1 84616 206 8, £10.99 hbk)
MICHAEL ROSEN
Clerihew
Michael Rosen
Spent the 1970s frozen
People think when he says this that it’s him being paranoid.
Truth is: he was hypothyroid.
Ode
Something we should all remember
Happened one day in grey November
When with panache and pace
the Metropolitan Walking Race
Michael won in grey November.
Is it really this we should all remember?
Elegy
Can it be true that a street or road
Could cause a body unwanted pain?
Well, yes, it could if it were the street
That goes by the name of Dalston Lane.
Why should Dalston Lane be picked
As it stands sadly derelict?
Because it was the Council who
Refused the likes of me and you
To live or work in the shops or flats
And handed the buildings to sewer rats.
I’ll say no more, my lips are sealed
It’s a tragic and complex story
Where councillors who we thought were Labour
Turned themselves into something Tory.
Couplet
Oh once children’s verse was ever so pretty
But now it’s horrid and set in the city.
Latest book
Mustard, Custard, Grumble Belly and Gravy , ill. Quentin Blake and including a CD of Michael Rosen reading the poems (Bloomsbury, 0 7475 8739 6, £12.99 hbk)
