Vals Poetry & Blog

Welcome to my blog page, and welcome to my world of poetry. I absolutely love writing and performing poetry for children and to start the blog off, I am posting samples of some of the poems I have written.

I write poems for many themes, which I am happy to tailor for school visits and events, such as: History (historic figures and events), People (Being Me) Animals and Nature, Seasonal Days of the Year (Halloween, Bonfire Night, Easter, Christmas etc) Types of Poetry (including Acrostic, Ekphrastic, Limericks), Fantasy and Nonsense, Food, Rhythm and Rhyme, Travel etc.

Click on a title to read the post

NATIONAL POETRY DAY THEME: WONDER

THE END OF AUGUST IS NEARLY HERE!

LATE SUMMER NEWS

June 2026 – after a mini heatwave at the end of May we seem to be drowning in rain and battered by winds. But whatever the weather, poetry is always on my mind. And poetry is what I have been working on since I last posted on my blog in April. I have three Historical Horror poems appearing on the https://scaryness.com website, including one about some noblemen who ended up in a sewer, the day that William the Conqueror exploded! As well as one about the Plague Doctor. Here are a few poems to get us thinking about summer – I’m sure its on the way.

APRIL: It’s a bit blustery today, after a flash of summer took us all by surprise, including the wildlife! My garden is full of wild flowers and blossom, and beautiful spring scents. I haven’t posted any poems for a while, so here are a couple of Spring poems. First up is Garden’s Make me Smile, followed by New, The Colours of Spring, and Dandelion Universe. Happy Springtime to you all

Hello on this beautiful sunny day at the beginning of March! Spring is sprouting in the garden and its beginning to get colourful with daffodils and primroses, and the peeping tops of bluebells. I’ve seen some gorgeous yellow Brimstone butterflies, and the birds are singing at the tops of their voices. Hurrah for Spring! In February I posted some poems relating to National Year of Reading and also WORLD BOOK DAY which is happening this Thursday 5th March. What a wonderful day and year to celebrate reading! Here are a few more poems to celebrate the joy of reading. Don’t forget that libraries are full of books that you can take home and read for free! Authors can excite your imagination, and transport you to so many different places and events. Have a wonderful day exploring books, stories and poems. Please feel free to share these poems in your school.

Children’s Mental Health Week

Hello! It’s a bit of a a wet start to February. But let’s forget about that. 2026 Is the NATIONAL YEAR OF READING! and coming up at the beginning of March we also have WORLD BOOK DAY! What a wonderful year! Here are a few poems to celebrate the joy of reading. And don’t forget that libraries are full of books that you can take home and read for free!

Brrr – what a chilly start to the New Year! Here are a few wintry poems to fit the feeling! With some from the Fairy Door Poetry Trail at Painshill Park in Surrey, that, sadly, ends tomorrow. It was such a privilege to be part of it.

It’s been a great year for poetry – mine and all the other great poets that I know. Thank you to everyone who has published mine! The highlight for me was having my poem Red Kite displayed on a summer poetry trail at the wonderful Painshill Park Landscape Gardens in Surrey. And currently I have several poems on a wonderful Fairy Door Trail at Painshill, in collaboration with Nia Broomhall, the Poet in Residence. But back to Christmas. It’s Christmas Eve and here is a penultimate advent poem. Plus one for Christmas Day incase I forget!

Apologies for non posting of Christmas poems since 18th, but I have had the dreaded lurgy! Anyway this poem seemed rather appropriate – I hope you enjoy it!

17th & 18th December – More Christmas poems for you to open! This time I have included some Christmas card verses I used for a workshop – why not have a go at writing your own!

15th/16th December

14th DECEMBER – this is my made up version of the TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS. Why not have a go at making your own! Thanks to my poetry friend Kathryn Beevor for this idea. And you’ll find her version on Brian Moses blogspot on Twitter X

11th- 13th December – poems for Christmas!

9-10th December

7th & 8th December – Christmas Poems

3 x CHRISTMAS POEMS for: 4-6 December

CHRISTMAS IS COMING! I’m a little late with starting my advent poems, here are the first three! I hope you enjoy them. They are from my poetry collection, A Cracker Full of Christmas.

Hello everyone. We are almost halfway through November, so I thought it was time to update my blog and add some poetry posts for some important occasions that we have recently celebrated. I hope you had fun on GUY FAWKES NIGHT . Luckily the rain held off here and the celebration for Guy Fawkes Night in our village, was a very colourful occasion. On the theme of FIREWORKS, I have posted one about YOU! Yesterday was WORLD KINDNESS DAY and I will be posting a poem I wrote about feelings. It has also been ANTI-BULLYING WEEK and I have a poem for that too. These are all important moments to reflect and think about how we behave and react towards others. On 9th November REMEMBRANCE DAY was in memory of all the brave people and animals who gave their lives in two world wars, so that we could live in our country in peace. Thank you to them all. Moving on to today for a rather different theme. Today is a very soggy wet day! So I thought I’d post a RAINY DAY poem.

HALLOWEEN! The Spooky Night is getting nearer, and here are a few poems to get you thinking!

It’s NATIONAL POETRY DAY! The theme is ‘PLAY’ and to celebrate this wonderful day, here are some poems! Hurray for poetry!

LIBRARIES!

SEPTEMBER

SUMMER FUN!

I recently added some Summer poems to the website, and since then I have sent some, typed up, to various schools around the country, including a couple specifically written for all the Junior School, Year 6 leavers. I am including them here, and I wish all of you the very best of luck and happiness in your new Senior School adventures:

SUMMER: It’s been a while since I posted any poems or words on my website. At the moment it is hot, hot, hot and my garden is flourishing with flowers, vegetables and the inevitable little insects that want a taste of it all! Here’s a poem to start us off about Aphids! Followed by a few more summer related words. Have a wonderful time, wherever you are!

VE Day – Victory in Europe 8 May 1945

SPACE

Happy Easter holidays! I hope you’re enjoying some fun in the sun. It will soon be time for Easter egg hunts and lunch and here is a bit of a silly easter poem to put you in the mood!

Happy Springtime! The daffodils are nodding their yellow trumpet heads everywhere I look and the garden is blooming with colour. Violets, daisies, crocus, primrose. This Sunday its MOTHERS DAY in the UK. I’ve written a poem called MY MUM IN ANIMALS. Please use it as a prompt and see if you can write a poem about your mum in animals, or maybe flowers, or any theme that springs to mind. Have fun with your mum and your poem.

WORLD BOOK DAY AUTHOR LETTER & POEMS

WORLD BOOK DAY! I expect you are all getting very excited about this fantastic event for 2025. I have been busy sending out Author Letters and poems to schools who have requested them. If you are reading this and would like the same, please drop me a line via the contact page. The poems I have sent out have been created on a typewriter. If you would like to know what a typewriter is you can ask a teacher. Below are copies of some of the poems I created especially for World Book Day and they are all about, books, reading and, of course, poetry! Have a wonderful time, and don’t forget – READING ROCKS!

Hi all, as its a bit dreary outside I thought I’d post some warm and funny poems from my book A Classroom of Stars. I hope you enjoy reading them.

Children’s Mental Health Week Awareness

Happy New Year! It’s 2025 and about time that I posted something new here. The next big book event is World Book Day. I will be posting some poems for that amazing event a bit nearer the time. Until then, as its chilly and brrr at the moment, here are three Winter Poems. I hope you enjoy them:

CHRISTMAS IS COMING! Time to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Here are some more poems to celebrate!

Just a few days to go until the Christmas month countdown begins. Time to start thinking about trees and Santa and presents. Last year I made Christmas cards and here are a few of the verses I put inside them. Why not have a go at decorating a card and making up your own Christmas Card Poem? FOR MORE CHRISTMAS POEMS YOU CAN HAVE A LOOK AT MY CHRISTMAS POST FROM LAST YEAR. AND I WILL BE POSTING NEW ONES FURTHER ON IN THE MONTH OF DECEMBER!

GUY FAWKES NIGHT! A few more poems for 5th November and Autumn

Remember, remember, the Fifth of November!

HALLOWEEN! Time for some spooky poems! I’ll be posting poems between now and 31st October

October 3rd 2024 is NATIONAL POETRY DAY. The theme this year is: COUNTING. Here are a few poems I have written finding different ways to use the theme of COUNTING, followed by some old traditional nursery rhymes used to help children learn to count from ONE to TEN and beyond. I hope you enjoy them, and have a wonderful time on this special day. I hope you are inspired to write lots of brilliant poems yourselves.

SEPTEMBER – The season is changing – summer is over and it’s back to school time! New start, new class, new beginning. And what better way to start than with a poem with the title SEPTEMBER!

AUGUST IS HERE and the weather has been a bit more like summer. Here are some poem ideas for you to think about if you fancy scribbling some summer poetry: perhaps you can come up with some ideas about the sounds of summer, or a descriptive poem about something in the world around you. Spider shows how very small things can be inspiring, and last, but not least, a different way of thinking about laughter.

IT’S JULY. And that means the summer holidays will soon be here! Perhaps you’re going camping, or visiting another country. Whatever you’re doing or wherever you’re going I wish you a wonderful time. And here are a few different poems about summer and destinations

WHEN SINGULAR’S BECOME IRREGULAR PLURALS

World Laughter Day 3rd May

STRANGE TALK

CREATURE THOUGHTS

A LITTLE BIT OF SPRING MAGIC

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE DAY

APRIL

A WORLD POETRY DAY MESSAGE FROM ME

More Poems for World Poetry Day!

A POEM FOR EASTER!

WORLD POETRY DAY

HAPPY MOTHERS’ DAY!

TODAY IS INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

WORLD BOOK DAY

NEW POEMS FOR FEBRUARY 2024

I hope you enjoyed reading them, and don’t forget you can purchase a copy of the book they came from either from messaging me and purchasing direct, or going over to Amazon.

All Poems are copyright of the author Val Harris.