YOU REALLY DO HAVE TO LAUGH

I expect people know that 4 October 2007 was National Poetry Day, but here in Ilkley it is the Ilkley Literature Festival too.  Now, being literary people, all of you, in case you haven’t heard of it before, you have now:

“The Ilkley Literature Festival is an annual event in the spa town of Ilkley and has become one of the UK's top arts festivals. Attracting many important international literary figures, its two-week programme, starting at the end of September, now features more than one hundred and forty events which take place in a variety of venues in Ilkley and surrounding towns and villages. The festival includes events for children and young people and a festival fringe.  Festival director Rachel Feldberg has described the festival as 'bringing the best and most exciting literature from across the world to Yorkshire.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilkley_Literature_Festival

You see, our little town is not just a backwater, a hidden away place in Wharfedale situated between two lots of moors.  You will know, of course, that I have enthused about our town in my poems, but the nice thing about living here too, is that I have become involved in this Festival, albeit in a fringe event (which means I don’t get paid for it).   However, I was invited into some of our schools to see what the children are preparing for the day and to see some of them for National Poetry Day.

The first school was Westville House School.  Small groups had been given free reins to do The Winter Picnic as they wished.  I arrived in the sports hall to see all these little groups reciting this poem in various corners, with eyes shining and very excited.  One group of boys had a narrator and the other two played the part of Winter and his best friend Ice, who were miming the parts.  Unfortunately a snow fight led to someone punching someone else and the show had to be stopped.

The second group were three girls who were in the school choir, and they sang The Winter Picnic beautifully and quite surprised everyone.

Another group gave me a huge surprise because they had worked together and produced The Winter Picnic in the form of “rap” with a lot of jigging around and rhythm.  I must say that it was extremely effective.  I now await tomorrow to see which of these groups will be performing.  This will then be followed by “The Fish who Swallowed Granny’s Teeth”.  I have seen a bit of this acted out in the class, but when Granny said:  “I can’t eat this beef without any teef”, the boy performing this part was so realistic that we couldn’t understand a word he said.  Of course, they became a bit bored when it wasn’t their turn, so I split them into groups and asked them to give a rating 1 – 10 for performance, and if it wasn’t a high rating, to say why not, but politely, and remembering not to hurt the performer with unkind words.  This kept the rest of them happy and busy.  I await the outcome tomorrow and will report back.

On National Poetry Day I visited Ben Rhydding School.  As the theme for the day was “Dreams” I read them some of my poems on this theme, but they particularly liked “Dreaming of Monsters” and when I asked them if anyone had dreamt of monsters, every hand enthusiastically went up and they wanted me to stay there all night I think listening to their various dreams.  One asked me if I knew anything about “Dinosaurs” because it was his favourite subject.  I told them that I had written a poem called “Dinosaur Dinner” and, (Ooooh!  Goodie!) of course they wanted it.  (http://www.whiteheadm.co.uk/html/dino_dinner.html#dino). 
Yes, they loved it.  One said it was his favourite subject and his friend had to agree that it was his too.  One little girl, however, took it a bit too seriously and when I asked them if they liked it, she said timidly:  “Yes, but is that how dinosaurs died out?”  I explained that storytellers and poets are notorious liars (well I didn’t exactly use those words, ha ha ).  I said:  Storytellers and poets live in a world of fantasy and their stories aren’t always true.  They are just “make-believe”.  Then the last hand up was answered:  “I didn’t understand why he ate his friends.”  No, I guess she will always be a girl to wonder why one person is cruel to another, even if the other is a friend.  The teacher said the children would like to know a bit about me, so I said:  "Do any of you want to ask me a question?"  One hand went up quickly.  It was the little boy who liked dinosaurs.  He wanted to ask me a dinosaur question, but it was much too complicated for me to answer, so we quickly moved on.

The second class were a bit older.  The teacher said that they were lucky to have a children’s poet living in their home town,  who could come in and meet them.  I, on the other hand, thought I was so lucky to go and meet the little audience that I write for because without the feedback, I wouldn’t do so well.  The teacher continued:  “You know, children from other towns don’t have a poet to visit them” but I told the class that I have Skype and a webcam and have been invited to go into a classroom in Chicago to visit some teenagers. The teacher looked at me amazed:  I told her not to believe everything they say about "grannies" because they are not all out of date. ha ha. I secretly think that the teacher in Chicago, with the bored teenagers,  thinks I may be able to wave a magic wand over them and fill them with inspiration.  Well, I hope so. Oh dear, any suggestions?  Now the children at Ben Rhydding school  were more interested in the technicalities of Skype and being able to see across the world than anything else.   I said:  “When you see the news tonight, you will see the newscaster turn to his screen and ask someone a question, and that person can be across the world.  So that is what Skype is.”  One little boy said he would think of me when he saw this.

The poem “The Autumn Visit” went down well.  I stopped at the various questions in the poem and asked them:  “Who do you think Autumn’s best friend was?”  One said:  “Spring” – wrong answer.  One said “Leaf” – wrong answer.  Then I gave them a clue:  “Think of the weather.  Who blows the leaves around?”  Eventually they got it.  We came to the next question:  “What lunch do you think the two friends will eat?  What sorts of things would be good for a treat?”  “No.  Not crisps. No.  Not chocolate biscuits.  Try “healthy”.  What is there in the natural world at this time of the year for them to eat?  Well, what do the birds like?  It’s in the bushes and trees?  Reply:  “A bird’s nest.”  “No.  Birds don’t eat birds’ nests do they?”  Eventually we get to “berries”.Then we also get apples and other fruit, but one said “a pineapple”.  The teacher explained that they don’t grow here.  Well, we got through this poem and I took in some “visual aids”.  One was Lenguin the Penguin (a glove puppet). I could put my hand into him and wave his wings at the children.  (Is your imagination going at full strength?) The children knew this poem.  However, I also have a little penguin, who used to be Lenguin before the glove puppet came.  So I explained to them that Lengujin had had a baby in the summer.  One child said:  “But I thought Lenguin was a boy!”  “Yes, he is, but Daddy Penguins look after their babies whilst - - - - - what does Mummy Penguin do?  Yes, she goes off on a fishing trip doesn’t she?"  Then came the little donkey from the poem “The Best Donkey of them All.”  He received a long “aaaaaaaah”.  The most popular one was Looby Loo, a very old rag doll who was my daughter's little doll.  She is in one of the Christmas poems, and every child who ever claps eyes on Looby Loo loves her.  So they were passed round and petted and I was lucky to have a nice bunch of flowers.  So we were all happy.

Today I went to Ashlands School to see the rehearsal of the two school poems.  Three girls presented themselves.  It was obvious that one was the boss and she told me that she was attending “acting school” – so I guess she knew more than the rest.  Eyes shining, and dying to show me how they had interpreted the two poems, we were ready for the performance.  I was told that I was to have an acting part in their little drama.  I was to be the teacher, of course.  In the poem “Not done your homework?” I have to ask the question at the start of the poem, and then look cross, surprised and everything else at the answers.  They had split into three.  Number one (the bossy girl) was the narrator and came in with a great introduction in verse one.  Then the others came in one by one.  When it came to the part that one had left her homework in the bathroom and father had used it as toilet paper, there was a lot of giggling and the school secretary walked in and heard this line.  Luckily for me, she just smiled.  They really enjoyed the verse about:  “I prefer to do my homework in the cemetery at night, but a ghost came up and frightened me and I dropped it in my fright.”  In fact, they were getting so ghostified with this that the ghostly sounds hid most of the words and I had to explain that they must say the verse, saying the words clearly to their audience, and then, make the ghostly sounds afterwards.  With regard to “No Snacks Please” I have been told that I am again the teacher, and they will be bringing in boxes of snacks, and it is my job, at various points, to pick them out.  At the end of the poem, I have to sit with my back to them, pretending to eat the snacks, whilst they are peering at me from behind.  So I now know what I am doing.  The last I heard, Miss Bossy was telling them:  “There’ll be another rehearsal this afternoon at breaktime, and you must make sure you know all your lines for tomorrow.”  Miss Bossy asked me if it was OK if she invited all her friends for her performance, and I said “Yes, of course.  It is the “Children’s Corner” of the festival.”

I do hope that these stories will encourage you to write good rhyming and rhythmic poems for the young.  Not many people are writing rhyming and rhythmic poems, but children really love them.  They think that words that sound alike are great, and words that make great sounds are fantastic (whatever they mean).   They like you to read and stop at the rhyming word.  They like stories of fantasy characters, and don’t forget the monsters, the witches, the dinosaurs (Oh!  Please don’t forget the dinosaurs) – and get into the schools and get the children involved with acting out the poems and having free rein with their own interpretations. 






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