Teachers & Parents!

We invite you to submit your students' original poems

for the Father Goose Poetry Festival for Kids!

Click link below for details.

Father Goose Poetry Festival for Kids! 

  WHAT'S A POEM?

A whisper,

a shout,

thoughts turned

inside out.

A laugh,

a sigh,

an echo

passing by.

A rhythm,

a rhyme,

a moment

caught in time.

A moon,

a star,

a glimpse

of who you are.

from The Father Goose Treasury of Poetry

by Charles Ghigna

I like poems that make me LAUGH.
Sometimes I like poems that make me THINK.

I like poems that are SHORT and FUNNY.
Sometimes I like poems that are LONG and SERIOUS.

I like poems that RHYME.
Sometimes I like poems that have no rhymes!

Here are some different KINDS of poems.
Which kind would YOU like to write?

~ If-I-Were / If-You-Were ~

• Father Goose created the If-I-Were and If-You-Were poems for kids. Each poem contains a little magic trick called the METAPHOR! A metaphor is a fancy way of saying COMPARISON!
   
• Instructions:
   
• COMPARE yourself to some THING (inanimate object), then COMPARE  your friend to some THING else.  Notice that lines 2 and 4 rhyme. 
   
• Here is an If-I-Were poem from by Charles Ghigna from LADYBUG magazine.
   
• These poems make great Valentines!

If I were a lonely lighthouse
And you were a ship at sea,
I'd shine my light through the night
Till you returned to me.

• Here are two If-You-Were Poems 
• from IF YOU WERE MY VALENTINE by Charles Ghigna.

If you were a shining star
And I were your midnight,
I'd let you shine above me,
You'd be my only light.

If you were the pages of a book
And I were reading you,
I'd read as slow as I could go
So I never would get through.

• Father Goose also created the If-I-Had poem so you could use your wild imagination!
   
• These poems also make great Valentines!

If I had the sun on a string

Like a giant yellow kite,

I’d fly it over your house

And chase away the night.

 If I had a sack of shooting stars

Shining bold and bright,

I’d give them all to you

To wish on every night.

 If I had a jar of fireflies

I would set them free

To shine their light upon your face

For everyone to see.

~ The Quatrain ~

• A QUATRAIN is a group of 4 lines. That group is called a STANZA.  The ballad stanza quatrain has a rhyme at the end of lines 2 and 4.
   
• Here are poems that have QUATRAINS.
   
• SCIENCE FACTION
• 
  Nature, it's truth,
• Is full of surprises
• The sun doesn’t set—
  The horizon rises!
   
• WISTERIA
• 
  Looks like grapes.
  Smells like roses.
  Springtime's gift
  To eyes and noses
   
• THE BEE POEM
• 
  A poem is a busy bee
  Buzzing in your head.
  His hive is full of hidden thoughts
  Waiting to be said.
• 
  His honey comes from your ideas
  That he makes into rhyme.
  He flies around looking for
  What goes on in your mind.
• 
  When it's time to let him out
  To make some poetry,
  He gathers up your secret thoughts
  And then he sets them free.
  
  A POEM IS A LITTLE PATH
• 
  A poem is a little path
  That leads you through the trees.
  It takes you to the cliffs and shores,
  To anywhere you please.
• 
  Follow it and trust your way
  With mind and heart as one,
  And when the journey's over,
  You'll find you've just begun.
   
• THE COLD GRAY DAYS OF WINTER
• 
  
•  In the cold gray days of winter
• When the sky turns iron blue,
  And the leafless trees stand silent
  With nothing left to do,
• 
  There comes a cry across the land
  That carries seeds of spring,
  The echo of the distant hawk,
  The sun upon his wing.
   

~ Riddle Rhymes ~

• Riddle Rhymes are fun to write! Each one contains a riddle. 
• The answer to the riddle is at the end of the poem.
• 
  Here are three Riddle Rhymes from the book RIDDLE RHYMES by Charles Ghigna.
• 
  HIGH FLYER
• 
  I fly above the tallest trees.
  I'm not a bird or plane.
  I have no wings or feathered things.
  I do not like the rain.
• 
  
•  I play among the passing clouds.
  I like to rise and sail.
  I am a friend who loves the wind.
  I'm big and have a tail.
• 
  I like the gusty month of March.
  I soar way out of sight.
  My shape is like a diamond.
  I am a brand-new KITE.
• 
  
  THE EVERLASTING LIGHT
• 
  I shine forever free.
  I do not cost a cent.
  I need no bulb or battery.
  My light is permanent.
• 
  You'll find me way up in the sky,
  When each new day's begun
• ,But do not look me in the eye--
  I am the shining SUN.
• 
  
  YOUR HIGHNESS
• 
  I am a free and open field
  That's never out of bounds,
  Where kites and planes and boomerangs
  Can do their ups and downs.
• 
  I am the biggest yard of all,
  Where birds begin their play
  Of hide-n-seek among the clouds
  At each new break of day.
• 
  I am the place called outer space,
  Where nothing is too high.
  I am the home of all the stars--
  I am the endless SKY.
• 
   

~ Haiku ~

• The Japanese haiku (pronounced "hi-koo") is one of the  oldest and shortest forms of poetry. The entire poem consists of only 17  syllables in 3 lines of 5-7-5 syllables. Haiku poems usually contain  brief descriptions of nature and have no rhymes.
  Here are three haiku from HAIKU: THE TRAVELERS OF ETERNITY by Charles Ghigna.
• 
  JUNE
• 
  The cricket calls to
  the meadow, each evening he
  hears his echo sing.
  
  SEPTEMBER
• 
  Shadows bow to the
  setting sun, pray to the sky
  for blessings of light.
  
  OCTOBER
• 
  Artist autumn comes,
  paints her blush across each tree,
  drops palette, and leaves.
• 
   

~ Free Verse ~

• Free Verse poems can have any number of lines and they do not have to RHYME.
  Here are four free verse poems from THE FATHER GOOSE TREASURY OF POETRY by Charles Ghigna.
   
• SNOWFALL IN THE CITY 
• 
  
• Covered in creamy
  birthday-cake frosting,
  the parked cars
  huddle beneath
  their streetlamp candles
  waiting for the North Wind
• to come make its wish
  for morning.
• 
  
  SUNRISE
• 
  
• Dawn breaks
  wakes
  turns the night
  into drops
  of dew
  that drip
  drip
  drip
  from the tip
  tip
  tips
  of swaying
  blades
  of morning
• grass
  that dance
  in the glow
  of the sudden
  sudden
  sun.
• 
  
  SKYDIVER
• 
  First step
  and he swallows
  the dry, delicious fear
  of walking on air.
• 
  Body bent back
  into a bow,
  he falls into the arms
  of the screaming wind,
  his heart beating
  taps in his ears.
• 
  POP,
  and an angel wing
  pulls him from the thunder
  of a hundred
  mile an hour dream.
• 
  He sits perched,
  a runaway cloud
  of contentment,
  a fearless eagle feather
  lost in the drift
  of an early afternoon.
• 
  Knees bent, he pulls
  the taut reins of reality,
  ready-sets himself
• for one final, little life,
  one last tiptoe of air
  before his flying feet
  must run their
  earth-bound way
  back home.
• 
  
  ARS LONGA, VITA BREVIS
  (Art is Long, Life is Short)
• 
  Like the sculptor
  who chips away
  at what is not
  the sculpture,
  your life
  is in your hands,
  the pure
  imperfect stone
  waiting for its
  daily touch,
  the gentle tap,
  the savored strike
  toward mass
• and space
  that form
  the perfect past,
  your tribute
  to the art
  of living.
   

*      *      *

Have fun READING and WRITING poems!

We look forward to reading YOURS!

*      *      *

LET'S BUILD A POEM

Let's build a poem
made of rhyme
with words like ladders

we can climb,
with words that like
to take their time,

words that hammer,
words that nail,
words that saw,
words that sail,
words that whisper,
words that wail,

words that open
window     door,

words that soar, 

words that sing,
words that leave us

wanting more.

      from THE FATHER GOOSE TREASURY OF POETRY by Charles Ghigna