Hearing Children Running And Screaming

 Hearing Children Running And Screaming

by Angela Lansbury

Small children love to jump and run

They won't stay still, running's more fun

They like to push, scream, splash and shout

They zig zag, bump, fall, leap about

They race and fall, parents don't care

Kids knock you down, they like to share

They do not speak if they can shriek

I'll die or go deaf by next week

Save sanity, observe these rules

Don't live beside an infants' school

Don't read beside a swimming pool

Save hearing, bruised limbs, with these tools.

Remember granny's old wise words

Kids look cute, seen, - not raced, nor heard!

I want to speak but hold my breath

I think their Mum and Dad are deaf.

-ends-

Useful Resources

https://simple.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Mai

https://www.wiki-calendar.com/

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, fashionista. Please share links to your favourite posts or one or more of the blogs

Books include Wedding Speeches and Toasts (Ward Lock/Cassell)

Quick Quotations (Lulu.com) 

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

https://comicpoemsbynutter.blogspot.com/

https://comicpoemsbynutter.blogspot.com/2020/12/how-to-write-christmas-card-poem.html

For one hour online individual tutorials or group workshops contact

annalondon8@gmail.com

How to write a Christmas card poem + Comic Poem No 131 Christmas Crackers

CHRISTMAS & ANNUAL EVENTS

 1 To write poems for cards in advance, select an occasion, or series of occasions, such as:

Anniversary, Birthday

Christmas, Belated Christmas

New Year

Religious Christian/Other religion such as Jewish Hanukah/Secular

Make a small file to store your first drafts. Write down rhymes or rhythms or free verse ideas.

...

ANIMALS, PEOPLE, PLACES, TRANSPORT

Animals/Birds🦊🦄🐔🐄🐑🐪🐘🐿🦕🐓🦃🦢🦜🦉🐧. 

Beloved Cats, Dogs naughty or missed, pets, annoying or cute.

Animals: flocks of sheep, manger, cows, sheep, donkeys👀

Domestic animals: birds, cats, dogs, rabbits

Reindeer

Transport: Sleigh, husky dogs, horses

Season: sun; snow; before and after.

Location: Middle East, Jerusalem 

Humans

Central People: baby Jesus/Jesus/ Mary💖

Visitors: three Magi, Shepherds, visitors, strangers, passers by

Garden, yard, trees, wood, forest✔

.....

FOOD, DRINK AND DINING ROOM

Food; Turkey 

Dessert: Christmas pudding, 

Tea time: Christmas cake, yule log, stollen, panettone

Wine: mulled wine, red wine, pink, white wine, bubbly, Champagne

Dinner, supper, midnight feast🎉

table, chair, tablecloth

buffet❤

feast

candle, candle light

...

SEASONAL CELEBRATIONS
Gifts: parcel, present, wishes🌹🎁

Photographs Merriment: jokes, laughter,

Go through a dictionary of synonyms to find alternative words.

For example, 

tree, forest, branch, leaves, wood, fir, pine, cones

adore, appreciate, cherish, love, lust, love, marriage, show affection, worship

donate, gift, give, loan, present, share

family, love, mate, kith and kin, extended family, brothers and sisters, in-laws, significant other, mother, father, Dad, Mum, granddad, grandmother, grandchild, son, daughter, sweetie, offspring descendants

Go through a rhyming dictionary to find rhymes:

For example:

bed, head, bedhead, red, read, said, 👍

angel, bell, dell, Del, fell, heaven and hell, sell, tell, well

all, ball, call, fall, gall, hall, mall, pall, small, tall

bring, ding, ringing, ring, sing, singing, wing, winging, queen, king😃

Christmas day, far away, bay, gay, hay, holiday, jay, lay, may, neigh, pay, ray, say, tray, way

be, yet to be, Dee, fee, free, glee, he, me, see, she, tea, tee, three, tree, we, Zee🌴☘

wreath, beneath, heath, teeth

gift, lift, miffed, rift, sift, 😍

live, forgive

mice, nice, slice, spice🥠🍿🍓🍏🥕

above, love💖

prove, smooth, soothe

bow, doe, foe, go, ho-ho, Jo, Joe, loh, low, mow, know, no, row, show, snow, tow, woe

fleece, peace, 💋

calm, harm

been, dean, Dene, jeans, teens, lean, mean, teen, green, queen, seen, screen, wean,

Cream, scream 

cope, dope, hope

awoke, bloke, joke, mope, nope, Pope, rope, soap, woke😊🎉

clappy, happy

clap, mishap, tap

go, know, mistletoe😜

heaven sent, ornament, well spent✔

beer, clear, fear, year💕

Read your poem to another person or two or three to get their ideas, objections and corrections and additions to the subjects, recipients, people and events described.

Look up other Christmas cards to see their messages.

Find your previous year's Xmas photo for inspiration.

Useful Websites

dictionary.com

https://messages.365greetings.com/

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, fashionista. Please share links to your favourite posts or one or more of the blogs

Books include Wedding Speeches and Toasts (Ward Lock/Cassell)

Quick Quotations (Lulu.com) 

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

https://comicpoemsbynutter.blogspot.com/

https://comicpoemsbynutter.blogspot.com/2020/12/how-to-write-christmas-card-poem.html

Christmas - Crackers!

by Angela Lansbury

When white snow paints rooftops and icy ground

When goodwill glitters grumbles all around

When sweet singing fills the frosty air

Ice skating, theatre, dark nights at the fair

When the golden bells are ringing

When the well-dressed choirs are singing

When people madly, badly dance in red and green

When parcels, ribbons, bows are seen

When the winter trees are green

Bright lights are white, or new and blue

When the seasons turn around

That's when thoughts turn from them to you

I think of a wide-eyed laughing child

I think of teens, parties so wild

I think of happy times we had

I think of you and I feel glad

Whether you're near or far away

Those best of times will always stay

That cinema inside I see

Re-plays happy days for you and me

So thank you for fond memories

For over-eating festive food, and sleeping after toasts with fizz

Our photos show the safety mask we know

Thoughts of bad and good old days make new days glow. 

TIME TO PLAN A POETRY YEAR! - Angela's Ten Commandments, Checklist for a poem or poem blog post

 

1 PICK A THEME

 Choose themes for the year, or a them for a blog or book on poetry. Philosophical, comic, historic, news and contemporary, famous people, politicians, presidents, anything you want to learn, anything you want to teach, recipes in verse. 

2 PLAN A REGULAR WRITING TIME

Write early in the day, at lunch time, or at night. You may be able to schedule publication of your posts. Where are most of your readers? In which time zone? Do you want to attract more of them? Or to target others?

3 PLAN A PLACE TO WRITE

A desk. A poetry notebook by your bedside. A poetry notebook in your pocket. Write the page numbers, titles, index, and your vital name and address or email in case you lose the book and want it returned.

4 CHOOSE A TITLE 

Have a page of titles. You could even write the titles for every month for a calendar, or every week, or every day of the years.

5 PLAN PRESENTING OR MARKETING

Read a poem at a meeting, as a time filler if the speaker is late.

6 Check syllable count

7 Check intonation

The most popular is dum dee dum dee

But if you start with the word a or the your sentence becomes dee dum, dee dum 

8 Move the drama to the start and end of each poem and verse

9 Surprise

10 CLARIFY AND FOCUS

If you have two stories, events, ideas, maybe you have two poem. If not, you need a link.

11+

Add facts or links. Author details. References. Credit to photographer for photos. 

Useful Resources

https://simple.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Mai

https://www.wiki-calendar.com/

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, fashionista. Please share links to your favourite posts or one or more of the blogs

Books include Wedding Speeches and Toasts (Ward Lock/Cassell)

Quick Quotations (Lulu.com) 

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

For one hour online individual tutorials or group workshops contact

annalondon8@gmail.com

New Poem Plans For The New Year - my Plans and Yours: Illustrations, Revisions and Themes

My friend Linda S writes poems to put in Christmas cards. The strange thing is that I consider this way beyond my capabilities, although I have written poems on all sorts of subjects. If you wrote a couple of poems every day for a year, by the time it gets to Christmas, you would have at least one couplet which you could use in the year's Christmas card. 

What have I don for myself and you in December 2020?

In December 2020 I have revised my comic poetry blog. I added a picture to start every poem. That was my main objective.

ILLUSTRATIONS I had three choices.

1 Add any picture which fitted the theme. Use Wikipedia for out of copyright pictures.

2 Spend time hunting for a cartoon.

3 Take a photo from around the house. For example, for a suitcase to fit a poem on packing lists.

However, whilst adding the illustrations, I read through each poem, and decided to check the syllable count of the poems

REVISIONS

1 I added an extra verse to poems of two verses to make the classical form of three.

2 Except limericks. I am thinking about making limericks into groups of three with a link between the theme of the three.

3 I checked the posts which had fewer readers and made the title more catchy.

4 I moved the best lines to the end of each verse to make punchline effect.

MORALE

1 At first it was disheartening to see how many poems needed fixing. However, it was heartening to realise that I can see how much progress I have made in writing poetry and creating blogs over the past year.

PLAN

Now I am much better placed to write a ten commandments of writing poetry or a checklist for homework when I teach.

STORY MEMORY

I remember coaching a pupil to write a ballad for her homework. First we both looked up ballad in different dictionaries.

Then I asked her to find a theme. She was blank.

So I suggested she wrote down ten ideas. I suggested three or four. Books. Computers. Trees. Birds. Cooking. Zoos. She chose cooking and computing. I told her to look around the room and pick eight more words. Desk, Pen kettle and so on. She wrote ten.

As a teacher and home tutor I am not allowed to do her homework or course work. She had to make all the decisions.

She chose computer. I was surprised. Rather modern for a sonnet.

But it was her choice, her creation, her homework. And she had to write about something about which she felt enthusiastic.

The result she created was just so-so, in my opinion. But we had fulfilled the objective. Get the homework done. Her mother could not help. Her mother spoke English as a second language.

Before the lesson, neither the mother, not the pupil, nor I (!) knew or remembered the two classical forms of sonnets.

I had not realised how simple a sonnet was to write. Just three four-line verses, ending with a couplet.

Imagine my surprise and joy when the next week the mother thanked me because her daughter's poem was top of the class! The poem was entirely the girl's own creation. All credit for the poem went to her.

I had simply shown her the steps to take. Check the sonnet form. Choose a subject. Write a grid for the poem form on the page. Approve or revise the titel. Eliminate repeated words unless you are using them for effect. Clarify and add detail. Find alliteration. Check syllable count. Read aloud to check rhythm and readability.

An hour's effort to complete the draft with crossing out. Another hour routine to present it properly. She went home and rewrote it or typed it so the teacher could read it, adding her name and the date. So, I reckon an hour to write my first draft poem. Another hour to illustrate, add references, check spellings and typos.

But all credit for the teaching went to me. Before the lesson started, she didn't even know what a sonnet was.

What had I gained? from that lesson, I had earned money for the hour's lesson. I had learned to write a sonnet. I had a pupil who was happy to come to the lesson, because I solved her puzzle, her problem. The mother was satisfied with money well spent, homework done, and daughter an achiever.

And I had learned how to write a sonnet.

What have I gained from a year writing poetry, and three sessions of on and off days revising the poetry blog?

Now I must write a sonnet for New Year's Day 2021. I must also prepare a plan for the year. A poem a day. But I mustn't waste time. No need to waste time. I often write a poem whilst swimming or travelling to and from the pool. In the UK in the car there and back. In Singapore waiting for the lift.

What have you gained?

1 Amusement from reading poems.

2 Insight into how it is done.

3 The possibility of starting or improving your own poetry writing.

4 A plan or scheme to write to time, every day, or every morning,

5 A plan for a theme through the next year. Such as poems on the seasons or weather. Or the political news of the day. Events. People. Philosophy.

6 The chance to help others by helping your children or grandchildren, teaching pupils.

7 Help choosing a teacher to help your children write creatively for fun, or do homework.

8 A chance to find me or another (such as me) to help you complete tasks in good English or write creatively for fun.

9 Finally, an opportunity to use the suggested skills on proof-read, or edit a publication of poetry or prose.

10 Useful lists of resources.

Useful Websites

dictionary.com

songwritingacademy.co.uk/international-songwriting-conference-2018/

https://www.thesaurus.com/

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiktionary

https://www.wiki-calendar.com/2021-calendar

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, fashionista. Please share links to your favourite posts or one or more of the blogs

Books include Wedding Speeches and Toasts (Ward Lock/Cassell)

Quick Quotations (Lulu.com) 

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

Her Name Was Becky, she wasn't a techie - comic poem by Angela Lansbury

 

Her name was Becky; she wasn't a techie

She wasn't a fool, 'cos she went to art school

She wore a short dress - it was such a success

No boy could resist when that girl did the twist!

Her ear-rings shook, long - she could do nothing wrong

Black eyes, her face pale, one ex-boyfriend on bail

But what did he break? She claimed, 'just a mistake'

She got in a muddle, lost keys, such trouble

Yet she smiled, easy-going, always such fun

She quoted her Mum - 'there's someone for everyone'

She was my best friend, but, all good things must end

She married young. Why?  Had had a baby begun?

She did well for herself, found a millionaire

He was short and bald, she chopped off her long hair

I often wish I could find her, somehow

Bohemian Becky - please - where is she now?

-ends-

Based on my friend Cynthia. She went to art school. She had short hair and long dangling ear-rings. In the Swinging Sixties. We travelled to Greece, Turkey and Israel together. She married young. We lost touch.

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, fashionista. Please share links to your favourite posts or one or more of the blogs

Books include Wedding Speeches and Toasts (Ward Lock/Cassell)

Quick Quotations (Lulu.com) 

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

Gotta Get A Hat

 If you want to get attention

You have to get a stunning hat

Like Ascot hats with a big brim

To make chattering classes chat

If you're a super sporty type

Wear your favourite baseball cap

Not to opera, on the bus

So cool! There's nothing wrong with that

I'm not a sporty type, but fat

And so I wore a swimming cap

And posed beside a diving board

And asked a stranger, "Take a snap!"

If a lawyer goes slightly bald

Or silver grey, somewhat thinning

He's lost his comb, left wigs at home

A big hat's a bold beginning

I was partying New Year's Eve

Alas, I dropped my Covid mask

So I grabbed a spare Santa hat

And hoped no-one would know or ask

In olden days top hats looked tops

Paper hats from crackers were free

Streakers used hats for picnic pee

Teens in toy hats acted as cops

A hat brim shields you from the sun

You must admit big hats are fun

When a dicey courtship's begun

Wear your best hat - the race is won

So now we've had this little chat

Goodbye - may I borrow your hat?

-ends-

I changed the end from fetch my hat, which adds a note of finality, to the humorous end. 

Useful Websites & Resources

https://simple.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Mai

https://www.wiki-calendar.com/

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, fashionista. Please share links to your favourite posts or one or more of the blogs

Books include Wedding Speeches and Toasts (Ward Lock/Cassell)

Quick Quotations (Lulu.com) 

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

https://comicpoemsbynutter.blogspot.com/

https://comicpoemsbynutter.blogspot.com/2020/12/how-to-write-christmas-card-poem.html

For one hour online individual tutorials or group workshops contact

annalondon8@gmail.com