Inner City Park - A Poem About Inspiration

I had a bad night suffering from the cold

Snow is silver, sunshine is gold

But everything’s silver upon my skin

I’m shaking from the Arctic wind

I woke up with an aching head

As I tumbled out of bed

Mum felt bad and Mylo did too

But I still had a lot to do.

When Louise picked me up, she took me into town

To see if the bakery van’s around

But Mr Mickey Murphy was in Inverness

What did we do next? Can you guess?

We went to ASDA to get some food

But going to the park I was in a good mood

As we made our way down to the bench

Where I found a pink bottle cap completely drenched

Louise laid my black coat as I sat down

As I ate my sausage rolls, I looked around

The hair salon and the chicken shop stood nearby

But suddenly something caught my eye

I saw another bottle cap

Drenched in water from the storm’s leaky tap

Two crisp packets and a pack of gummy snakes

But best of all - RAGWEED! What can I make?

I know! A story! A lonely ragweed

Who remembers his friends in a time of need

When friends are lost, they’re always found

All I did was look around

A circular pavilion stood grand nearby

As well as a wreath where Atlanta’s mother died

Speaking of Atlanta, I miss Stingray

But my imagination saved the day

I saw Atlanta and Socks before me

Finding litter for crafting and drawing

Crisp packets to Socks make good Winter gloves

The pink bottle caps make good earbuds

The circular pavillion I mentioned before

Is where Donkey belts out English ee-aaws

To Brum, Sooty, Sweep and Soo

I miss them quite a lot, don’t you?

Louise had a ginger flavoured chocolate bar

And a movie rated 15 that would leave a scar

But no scar gets bigger more

Then when my time on the internet soars

When Louise stopped for coffee, I wondered aloud

If my stories really stood out from the crowd

But I didn’t know my writing would be better

As the day got wetter and wetter

When we got back we made some soup

No tech tonight to spiral me in a loop

I helped chop the peppers one by one

I imitated DaneBoe’s Squash which was such fun

When I chopped the onions my eyes began to sting

Like they’ve been sprayed with weed repellent or something

While Louise thought my dog should be on Britain’s Got Talent

Under my tongue, a teaspoon I tried to balance

My eyes burning like London on fire,

I thought washing up was a good desire

But too much washing makes your back ache

But then I made a big mistake

I used a steam mop as a tea towel

But then, Mylo gave a howl!

With a mighty roar, he grabbed the mop

And Mum and Louise shouted for him to drop

I collapsed on the sofa with steaming raw eyes

My back ached bad, not a big surprise

I went to draw Ronald and his friends

And I tumbled into bed to take a nap in the end

Earlier today, I learnt about Mari Helen Scott

She left a lasting impression on us lot

They put her name on a bench in the park

So her spirit can live on in the lonely dark

When I woke up I did the story straight away

It seems I’ve had a busy day

But busy is as busy gets,

Ronald is my best story yet!

THE END

The Woodland Town Clock - An Environmentally Friendly Poem

Here in the forest is the Woodland Clock

Steadily going Click Click Knock

It’s a day in the life of our animal friends

All the way from start to end

From 6 to 7 the animals prepare

For the day’s glorious affairs

They brush their teeth and munch their toast

Before kissing goodbye the ones they love most

At 8 the children slowly get dressed

My, won’t their teacher be impressed

When they show up in their uniform

With smiley faces all slick and shawn

At 9 the kids set off for school

Here’s Billy Squirrel on his skateboard - cool!

Teela and Tanya laugh all the way

It’s another merry school day

At 10 the adults go to work

Be in your places, don’t be a jerk

The nut making business has just begun

As all the men put tough shell hats on

At 11, it’s break time at the school

Play with others, abide by the rules

A rumbling sound? Nah, just a piece

In Billy’s tummy, mustard and roast beef

At 12 - oh no! The alarm has sounded

The school’s destroyed, the children rounded

The diggers have come to destroy the wood

Like any soulless mechanism should

At 1, the trees are all cut down

Broken acorns lie all around

Workers manage to struggle free

But some were too late - dear me

At 2, the birds flee their nests

For the workers use repellent for pests

The acorn factory lies blackened and burnt

Amidst the once dew-covered green fern

At 3, the forest fires begin

The families cry out, trapped from within

A rainstorm calms the inferno down

And that’s the end of their woodland town

At 4, the animals have nowhere to go

The children cry to mourn the ones they know

But somewhere, there’s a twist of fate

Read on to see what the animals await

At 5, I see all the animals scared

The destruction left them unprepared

A kindly reserve warden I am,

I call myself Reserve Warden Sam

At 6, I call out “Off we go!”

The animals took off all their clothes

Primitive again, they hop into my van

Driven by me, Warden Sam

At 7, we reach my nature reserve

It’s a place my animal friends deserve

As they run off, I cry out “Be free!

Not only of destruction, but responsibility!”

At 8, I got to my little log house

And slump on my armchair, quiet as a mouse

Through the window, I see the animals at play

They’ve found light in the darkest day

At 9 as I prepared for bed,

I turned to you and then I said:

“We must take action, the animals need you

To make their natural world better too.”

THE END.

Ronald The Ragweed

Once upon a time, in an enchanted inner city park, there lived a little turquoise ragweed named Ronald. The park was the most tranquil place on Earth, so no one could hear him when he said:

“Brrrr-ruffle-ruffle!”

Every day, he looked all around him for a new friend, only to find the big shoes of the people who come to the park. When people were about to step on him, he hid very quickly through a hole in a stone wall.

“Brrr-ruffle-ruffle,” he shivered.

One day, it happened that a great storm had hit the park and left a few bits of rubbish scattered around. Ronald peered out of his hole. He had never seen so much rubbish in his life! Suddenly, he heard a low hissing noise from behind him.

“BRRRRRRRR-RUFFLE-RUFFLE!!” he screamed in fear.

Some of the rubbish in the park had come to life. “Hello, darling,” said a soft, kind voice before Ronald - an old baby bottle top with eyes and lips hopped towards him. “I’m Mrs Cutee,” she introduced. “My friends and I are new here. Mind if I introduce you to them?”

“BRRR-RUFFLE-RUFFLE!” squeaked Ronald excitedly.

Mrs Cutee proudly proceeded to introduce Ronald to all her friends:

Baby Cutee - her daughter.

“Bibby-babble-booble!”

Sidney Sizzle - a snake who cooks the most delicious food for everyone.

“Ssssss….”

The Packet Twins, Twix and Twirl.

“Crinkle.”

“Cronkle.”

And….eh? What are these? Ronald could see three strange, goofy creatures sitting on the bench before him.

“Ruffle?” he asked, confused. Mrs Cutee chuckled.

“Those are creatures you made with the most powerful tool in the world - your imagination. Ronald, meet Mari, Helen and Scott.”

“Ruffle,” greeted Ronald.

“Taki toki,” smiled Mari.

“Gloop gloop,” went Helen.

“Yip-yappy!” went Scott.

At last, Ronald was happy. He now had a whole group of friends to play with!

In fact, they spent the whole of the next week playing games together.

On Monday, they played hide and seek.

On Tuesday, a bandwagon passed through the nearby town, so Ronald and Mrs Cutee led everyone in a dance party.

On Wednesday, they played tag.

On Thursday, they played Blind Man’s Buff.

On Friday, they did a conga line around the circular row of benches.

On Saturday, they took turns telling each other funny and scary stories.

And on the final day, they all enjoyed a big feast of sausage rolls and beef stew from Sydney’s magic cooking pot, his Hobblepop.

But after the week was up, something terrible happened.

Harold, the local park keeper, was out on a weekly night shift, and while Ronald was sleeping, he picked up each of his new friends and carried them away to be recycled at the local recycling centre in his rubbish bag.

The next morning, Ronald awoke to look for his dear friends.

“Ruffle!” he called joyfully.

No response. He called louder.

“RUFFLE!”

Still no response.

Ronald was about to call again when something stuck in his throat.

It felt like…no, surely, it didn’t feel like…yes! It was! It was a sickness called ‘emotion’.

Ronald cried and cried and cried. He cried so hard his slimy ragweed tears didn’t wash off the pavement.

Just as his eyes were about to ache from the gargantuan amount of crying, something caught Ronald’s red eye. He went closer to the mysterious rectangular object to see what it really was.

Ronald pulled it out from under the bench near the stone wall with a heave and a ho. To his surprise, there was a box of crayons. There was no label, it had no brand, and it was surprisingly clean. No matter how many times Ronald tried to dirty it, it still stayed clean.

Ronald opened the lid and peered inside. There was a quartet of crayons in four different colours - blue, green, yellow and red. Tucked behind them was a mysterious pink glittery card.

Ronald pulled it out and read carefully:

“Something magical will happen when you’ve missed your friends so much.”

Upon reading it, Ronald decided to draw on the pavement tiles all the fun times he had with his friends. The more he drew, the more he realised something: the drawings still stayed shining like hidden gold and jewels on the wet pavement.

But why? He thought to himself. Thoughts were still circling around his ragweed brain about this mysterious magic even when he went to sleep in his hole.

That night, a huge storm raged violently.

It blew down dustbins.

It ripped branches off the trees.

It sent benches tumbling about like acrobats in the wind.

It sent more litter flying about like a cosmic firestorm.

When Ronald emerged from his hole the next morning, the drawings on the ground had vanished! To make things more puzzling, a funny noise called out to him.

“Bllllrp-bllllrp!”

Ronald looked around in confusion. Who made that noise? He wondered. Then he heard another funny noise.

“Binki-bayna!”

And another.

“Grumble rumble!”

And yet another.

“Mooksy-cooksy!”

When Ronald spun around to see where the noises were coming from, there was a whole crowd of litter people before him, cheering and making funny noises loudly.

Ronald knew what he had done. His imaginative hope and patience had brought more friends to the park, to make up for the ones he lost.

The leader of the group was a ginger flavoured chocolate bar wrapper named Gingo.

And what did he remind him?

“Always look to the rainbow on a cloudy day.

Your old friends are calling you to come and play!”

And so, even though he had lots of new friends, Ronald was never lonely again…

…because he could always look to the rainbow to remember them.

THE END.

Dear Children Everywhere

Dear children everywhere,

I’m so glad you found my letter there

On your doorstep, wet in the rain

I thought it’d never come down again

I call all of you to answer my plea

To help us save British kids’ TV

The ‘50s started things quite simply

With Muffin The Mule and Andy Pandy

The ‘60s wasn’t that obscene

With shows like Clangers and Camberwick Green

It’s also an era of puppet sci fi

As Thunderbirds took to the sky

The ‘70s made us count on our fingers

How many times we’ve seen the Phantom Flan Flinger

Blue Peter and Magpie were popular back then

So was Morph and Tony Hart’s pens

Consumerism ruled in every ‘80s house

But at least we still had Danger Mouse

And Postman Pat and Pigeon Street

While Transformers and He Man stirred up heat

The ‘90s were full of colour and fun

With Noddy, Fireman Sam, Pingu and Brum

We boogied with the Teletubbies as they got up to dance

And we even gave Farthing Wood a chance!

In 2002 CBeebies and CBBC

Launched to all our excited glee

But little did we know it’ll get weaker

While we were cheering on Tracy Beaker

All kinds of shows, so much to choose,

But Peppa Pig made our parents lose

Their children’s tantrums and screaming and fights

For a Peppa Pig playset or nightlight

Then CBBC aired some shows

As worse as Dick & Dom’s bungalow

Gimme A Break and Undercover Dad

And from there, it just got bad

You started switching to Youtube from TV

You just like nursery rhymes, you see

Singing the same songs like Baby Shark

To keep parents awake in the dark

In ‘13, Nick Jr had a goal

To make a show named Paw Patrol

It and Peppa aired non stop for days

And other preschool channels forced consumerism ways

They made each show entirely CGI

That’s fast and loud as a sugar high

Now, let’s go back to CBBC

From ‘19, things weren’t as they seemed

At the start, Almost Never was set

To test out iPlayer’s new boxsets

They had drama marathons all year long

Was it British still? Well, we were wrong!

And from the pandemic, things got worse

There wasn’t a penny in a businessman’s purse

The word I say will make you revolt and retort,

For today’s fun word is: IMPORT.

American cartoons took over CBBC

Marking the end of CITV

And it got worse for CBeebies,

It focused on Bluey and parenting duties

And the problem with kids’ TV these days

Is there’s no quiet songs or stories or games

Everything is loud and way too fast

But with your help, this won’t last

We must stand with our hands joined together

To prove handmade, quiet shows are better

It takes a lot to make wrongs right,

For new kids’ TV is an awful sight

So ditch the brainrot and the loud fast pace

By signing this form like tying a shoelace

And together, we can make kids’ TV

Gentle and slow like it used to be.

Thanks for reading,

Daria Anton

Head of POAIBP

X

Facts To Help My Support Worker Know About New Captain Scarlet

1.NCS was made with a mix of CGI and motion capture animation

2.Captaun Scarlet had a shoddy airing spot on the Ministry Of Mayhem on CITV, making it the show's 'Butt Monkey's cartoon

3.My favourite characters are Destiny Angel, Captain Black and Captain Scarlet himself.

4.Everyone was changed round for the show: Destiny Angel's French accent was gone, and Lt. Green had undergone a gender swap from a man to a woman.

5.The battle sequences during each episode had shorter shots, making NCS overstimulating, but awarding and enjoyable to watch.

Ten Things I've Learnt From The Grey Method

1.Do stories one line or scene at a time

2.Eat cereal when your appetite is low

3.Add one thing a time into a cup

4.Make up new strategies

5.Do lists of three things

6.Be kind to a tired family member

7.Give someone tissues when they sneeze

8.Help someone more

9.Scribble all over a notebook

10.Do micro scenes

When I Have A Tickly Throat

When I Have A Picnic Near The Haunted Fleet...

The Lost Poems

The Gossips are from Dream Street

They talk about Carlton shows

Amber likes to spout aggressive mouthpieces,

As far as Scarlett knows!

Cyril’s a butterfly prince,

And Maisy’s a butterfly queen

Cyril’s clumsy at flying,

And Maisy’s the prettiest we’ve seen!

Can you draw and scribble

When you’ve got butterfly wings?

You can hunt for keys and cereal toys

And lots of other things.

One mug is for cocoa,

One mug is for fizzy drink

One mug is for orange juice

And one holds supplies when I think!

-Kipper

Toddlers can’t have cheeseburgers,

But I think they have a sandwich with cheese

Some yogurt, a banana, some bear shaped crisps

And an orange juice cup, if you please

-Lady Penelope (2015)

Tin Tin loves me more than ‘er ladyship

It’s really hard to tell

Who loves me most, but I can boast

That Tin Tin loves me as well