Writing Poetry for Children

As a writer, I’m always on the hunt for an idea. I note down all sorts of unusual things that happen and these often lead into poems or stories based around family and school life. In my new book, Dragon Cat there a lot of poems about these little snippets. Here are some of them:

• One summer, finding some snakes under a sheet of corrugated iron;

• One of my children suggesting that the gnomes round a neighbour’s pond needed rescuing;

• Our dog Hamlet who was one of life’s great enthusiasts, barking, licking everything and constantly rushing around;

• One of my children shaving the hair off a Barbie;

• Kicking a balloon round the house and breaking Mum’s precious ornament.

• In the school photo, running from one end to the other so I appeared twice!

I store these little snippets up, make a note in my writing journal and sometimes they become poems. Everyone has these little snippets about life: funny things people say and do, unusual relatives, special places, family and school stories about disasters.

My other main way of writing poems hinges round playing with ideas and words. I like to have these poems in my books because they are like an invitation – you too could write your own version. These poems usually use a repeating line to help you list your ideas. For instance, I have just written a poem that lists all the amazing things that I did NOT do in the holidays:

Things I didn’t do this Summer Holiday

In the Summer Holidays:

I didn't get to swim with mermaids off the Spanish Coast.

I didn't shake hands with Sherlock

or gossip with Gary Lineker.

I didn’t wrestle with King Kong and win in round one.

I didn’t breathe on a lake and freeze it.

I didn’t cloud-walk across the Himalayas.

I didn't hold the Strictly Trophy high

under the glitter ball's glittering lights.

I didn’t build a pyramid in the back garden.

I didn’t ride on the back of blue whale

or chat with dolphins in the Pacific blue.

I didn’t climb the Eiffel Tower in a force eight gale.

I didn’t ride a llama from Lima into Lidl.

I didn’t come first at the Olympics in the hundred metres,

beating Usain Bolt with ease.

No - I did none of these things

except in my dreams.

Pie Corbett

Anyone can have a go at this sort of writing. I like books that make me want to write. I hope Dragon Cat will inspire your own writing.

Written by Pie Corbett

Dragon Cat, published by Otter-Barry Books, September 2025.

Illustrations © Tom Morgan-Jones