Well I think I got a zillion emails with fable poems this month so it has taken me ages to read them all and write letters back.

I always get such a good feeling reading all your poems.

Only a few poems played with the idea of a fable – I loved reading fables when I was little. Lots of poems played with fairy-tale ideas, myths and some with nursery rhymes. So I only picked a few that weren’t fables.

Some poets made up their own fables and some were inspired by age-old ones. Daniel used the fable his sister Gemma had written when she was 7! I especially loved the way Tom told a fable in simple language so the story shone (not that you can’t tell a fable in rich language – poems can do anything. In fact Daniel’s poem is gloriously rich in words). I love the way the eyes of the lion and the cheetah glint in the middle of Tom’s poem and the different twists of cunning behaviour.

I also loved the way Josef borrowed from past things he had written to show how fairy tales are created. Genius!

So many treasures here from snow rabbits (Ivy) to why the kiwi has little wings (Olivia)

I am sending a copy of Groovy Fish to Tom and Olivia C.

 

check out my October challenge tomorrow!

 

The Lion and the Cheetah

In the grasslands

under an angry sun,

the cheetah was enjoying

her meaty lunch.

 

The minute she turned

her back, the lion pounced

and ran off with her meat.

 

The cheetah ran as fast

as a tornado, and

caught up with the lion thief.

 

“I challenge you

to a staring competition!”

she hissed at the lion.

“If I lose, you

can finish my lunch.”

 

The cheetah pushed her lunch

into a sack so

the ants wouldn’t eat it.

 

The two animals stared

at each other.  The lion

with his fierce coal eyes.

The cheetah with her

tear-stained eyes.

 

They stared and stared,

and watched and waited

and didn’t blink

and didn’t blink,

for ages and ages.

 

The sack with the lunch

was between the two

staring cats.  The lion

growing angry shouted,

“Look at the sun, it’s burning up!”

 

The cheetah looked up

and said, it doesn’t

look any different lion.”

When she looked down

the lion was running

off with the sack.

 

He had stolen a sack

of sand. The real

meat, she had hidden

in a termite cave.

 

She finished her tasty lunch

in the cave.  She heard

the lions fuming roar

five miles away.

Tom N Age 11 Year 6  Hoon Hay School – Te Kura Koaka

 

Snow rabbit

I see snow.
I see rabbit ears in the snow.
They are covered in jewels and the inside is blue.
The rabbit ears are dappled grey.
A blue nose pops out of the snow.
A curiously walk over and suddenly a rabbit pops up.
I can’t believe my eyes.
The rabbit is rainbow coloured and has white mittens on his feet.
I can barely make out mittens on his feet.
I decided to call him Mittens.
I creep towards Mittens.
All of a sudden he disappears into the snow.
I look down into the hole for the rabbit.
I call out to Mittens and was stunned when someone replied.
I suddenly fell into the hole.

Ivy M  age: 6   Y2  Ilam Primary School, Christchurch

 

Why kiwi can’t fly
Once there was a little kiwi his wings shone
Bright as bright as the moon
But one day he found a bug
This kind of bug is called a
Shrink bug
Kiwi ate it and his wings started to shrink!
That’s why kiwi can’t fly

Olivia C Age 8  Y4   Fendalton Open Air School

 

The Ugly Duckling

A different looking duckling was born one sunny day
In a meadow he was bullied for he wore a colour rather strange
The poor little duckling didn’t fit in with the others
He was brown like a tree not yellow like his brothers

One day he decided TOO MUCH Then he ran away

No one would accept him as one of their kind
Not the ducks nor the chickens nor the horses behind
Poor little duckling lived alone in the hay
Feeling hungrier and hungrier every rainy and sunny day

He grew stronger and stronger as the days zoomed past
Until one day he was beautiful and purposeful at last
A scaly brown dragon he flew up into the sky
Breathing fire through the day and all through the night

Never laugh at someone who is ugly and/or weird
They might just turn out like the dragon we have here

Skylarose H  Age 10 Year 6 Maoribank School

 

What I did

I was in the Ice age
Mammoths made rotten wolf stew
I also swam to Atlantis
People didn’t plan forests
But somehow they grew
My bird friend
Helped me scale the clouds
So I could build candy land
I also created unicorn land
With children just as glad

Eileen C Age 9  Ilam School

 

Wolves

Wolves howling on the forest floor
There’s no way to see them through a magic door
As they howl on the tip of the mountain top
If I wake, and climb up, then I’ll shout stop stop!
It scampers up and down Mount Cook
As I’m fast asleep like a fairy tale book
When the clock strikes midnight, the full moon is in its place
When it starts howling the moon shows its fierce scary face

Ashley C  Age – 7   Year – 2  Ilam School

 

How Fairy Tales are Created

First take a bucket of bubblespark water

from the Wishing Waterfall of the West.

 

Next pluck a feather from a roosting rosella

on top of Mount Shiverfrost.

 

Next go deep into the Volcano of Vulturetop

and take four sparks from the fire that is frozen in time.

 

Next pick a Goddess Berry from the Alive Wood,

just south of Dwarfton.

 

In Dwarfton, buy all the colours

from the Rambious Rainbow.

 

Ride the rainbow to Tipsy Topsy Town,

where you will need to steal a Silver Spiral.

 

Trek to the Prehistoric Lake and

dive down deep to collect a triceratop’s tusk.

 

Finally take all the ingredients to Buccaneer Cove

and watch the sun set.

 

When the first star appears in the sky,

you will have a fairy tale.

 

“Every world is interconnected” An explanation: I was thinking about how different things are connected and how small our world really is. I thought – what if all my writing came from the same world? ●       The Alive Wood came from a story I wrote in year 2 ●       Trekking to the Prehistoric Lake connected with my 2018 story about going to Vietnam ●       Buccaneer Cove came from a poem I wrote about Johnson’s Point ●       Mount Ruapehu in my Pouwhenua poem, became Mount Shiverfrost

 

Jozef B   Age 11   Year 6   Three Kings School

 

Little Miss NONSENSE

 

Little Miss Muffet,

Fell off her tuffet,

While building her house of bamboo.

 

The clock struck one,

She began to run,

But she forgot to grab her shoe!

Olivia C   Year 6   Age 11  Three Kings School

 

Why Ants Invade Houses

(Based on a Myth by Gemma)

 

A powerful sorceress

In a massive fortress

In the middle of the ocean

Conjuring creatures

 

Dragons and werewolves

Serpents and giants

But fearing to make

The Fierce Ant!

 

Half alien, half insect

Powerful and cunning

Only controlled by

A maze of extraordinary dimensions

 

A risky creation

With unimaginable rewards

Its intelligence and strength

Hiding an ancient secret

 

A creature that clones

Multiplying like a mathematician

In a quiet place with no boundaries

It is invincible

 

The sorceress dared

Sailing the oceans

Gathering magical items

Conducting the terrible experiment

 

Under the full moon

Chanting mysteriously

“Ancient beast, Ye shall feast,

Upon the things, Ye like the least…”

 

The enormous beast unleashed

Threw his creator up high

Left to clone an army

Snarling “I will rule the world”

 

The horrified sorceress

Conjured a maze

Its extraordinary dimensions

Disguised as a house

 

The ants entered the house maze

Power diminishing, size shrinking

No quiet place, boundaries all around

Condemned to life in a Labyrinth

 

But every now and then

Seeing freedom through a window

Finding the power to clone its tiny self

An army of small ants marches on

 

And that is why ants invade houses

Daniel L Age 11, Year 6, Adventure School

 

Dragon

Once there was a dragon,
It had beautiful colourful scales,
And it swam with the whales
It could deliver mail,
But sometimes it would fail
It turns up at the wrong house,
And finds a mouse
The mouse took the mail,
And bit the dragon on the tail

Alyssa B Year 4   Age 8   Fendalton Open Air School

 

The Tortoise and the Hare

In 1989 there was a tortoise and a hare. One day the tortoise bragged about being able to beat the hare’s child in a race. The next day the big hare told his sporty daughter Emma to race tortoise. She accepted and hopped to the starting line. The tortoise was already there.

The face began. The Emma jogged, not knowing tortoise had hidden fireworks in his shell. In the middle of the race, tortoise lit the fuse, speeding past her. Then…BOOM!!! the fireworks exploded, firing tortoise into the air. Emma found her chance, speeding to the finish line. Emma won the race.

When she got home, her parents were so happy, but they found a burnt tortoise in their garden. Oh no!!!!!

Lucy K   9 years old Year 4 Ilam School

 

T h a n k   y o u !