NATIONAL POETRY DAY THEME: WONDER
It’s almost the 1st of October, and that date is a very special date because it means it will be NATIONAL POETRY DAY!
How wonderful is that? To have a whole day devoted to poetry. On that note, I am adding some poems that I think relate to the NPD theme: WONDER.
The first poems is called: ON SEEING THE NORTHERN LIGHTS. Has anyone been lucky enough to see the Northern Lights (the Aurora Borealis)? What a wonderful natural phenomenon that is.
I’ve tried to add different ideas of Wonder including – nature, dancing, phenomenon, and an event that changed the world.
ON SEEING THE NORTHERN LIGHTS
A wow of light,
arrived last night,
and shimmered in the sky.
Purple, green and red display
the solar winds blew by.
***
A spectacular
phenomenon
we’d never seen before,
was there for free, how could it be
just there, outside our door?
***
Our hearts stood still,
they skipped a beat,
we feasted on the sight.
Such magic in the sky above
right there, for our delight.
************************
The next poem is related to Guy Fawkes Night, which isn’t that far off now on the calendar,
and is always full of firework wonder!
SUPER-ROCKET
The night of the fireworks,
Our pride and our joy
Was a very big rocket,
We hoped to enjoy.
***
But it rained and it poured
And the fireworks got wet.
Would the rocket still fly?
We didn’t know yet.
***
We all held our breath
As dad lit the rocket,
From a packet of matches
He kept in his pocket.
***
The rocket end fizzled,
It hissed and it sputtered.
It sparked then it died.
The launching was scuppered.
***
We all gave a long
disconsolate sigh.
We’d waited all week
For that rocket to fly.
***
Then all of a sudden
It burst into light,
Shot up through the raindrops,
And shattered the night.
***
It whooshed and it whizzed,
And a rainbow was made,
Through glittering raindrops
Our rocket’s parade
***
Was a dazzling sparkle
Of shimmering twirls,
Diamonds and rubies,
Emerald, swirls.
***
We gasped and we ducked
With the rain on our face,
As our rocket completed
Its charge around space.
***
As its colours grew dimmer
We all murmured, aah.
It sparked, then it vanished,
With one last hurrah.
**********************
Here is a poem for one of Nature’s wonders:
The first two verses are written as Cinquains:
MURMURATION
There is
a certain time
of year between autumn
and winter time when the skies come
alive.
***
It starts
with a meeting
of a million birds. Then
shape-shifting patterns appear in
the sky
***
pulsing and flowing,
rising and falling
swirling and swooping
S I
L
T R N S
A G
******************************
AMAZING FACTS!
You cannot lick the end of your elbow
But I bet you’ll give it a try.
***
And did you know that pigs
Just cannot look up to the sky.
***
A crocodile can’t stick its tongue out.
A prawn’s heart beats in its head.
***
An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain,
But it lays the largest egg!
***
A shark is the only known fish in the ocean
That blinks using both of its eyes.
***
The bellowing song of the male fin whale
Can be heard across six hundred miles.
***
All ants on the earth weigh as much as us all,
And a cloud weighs a million tonnes.
***
The loudest creature on earth is a prawn;
It makes decibels louder than guns.
***
A leech has thirty-two brains, two hearts
And an incredible five pairs of eyes.
***
Flamingos are not naturally pink,
This comes from their diets dye.
***
But the weirdest and scariest fact I’ve learned
Is, if a cockroach loses its head,
It can live for weeks without it when,
By rights, it should be dead!
*************************
LET THEM SLEEP
Spiny like a chestnut,
Curled up in a ball,
Snuggled in a nest of leaves,
Hidden from us all.
Sleeping from November
Through until the Spring.
Waking up a hedgehog now,
Can be a risky thing.
Unless he’s in a bonfire pile
then wake him right away!
(In the UK Hedgehogs hibernate, along with Dormice, Bats, Toads, and certain insects)
*******************
And here is one for the wonder of dancing!
JUST DANCE
‘Close your eyes and dance’ said the hare,
‘dance in the sunlight, dance in the air.
Whirl like the wind where it ruffles the grass.
Boogie like rain on a window glass.
Jive to the buzz of summer bees.
Bop with the birds, sway with the trees.
Hop through the daisies, swing with the vines.
Waltz in a forest of whispering pines.
Imagine the music, feel the beat
of earth and its rhythm beneath your feet.’
The rabbit and the hedgehog closed their eyes,
tapped their feet and, to their surprise,
they could feel all the things the bear had said,
and the world was a dance the big bear led.
They danced in the garden, they danced in the street.
They danced with a smile and they danced with a beat.
They danced and they danced in the summer sun,
and more and more creatures joined in the fun.
You see,’ said the bear, ‘it’s a wonderful place,
when the world is a dance, with a smile on its face.’
**************************
A FLAMBOYANCE OF FLAMINGOS
The most beautiful name
for a flock of these birds.
A ‘flamboyance’ of flamingos.
Such a beautiful word.
***
In lakes and lagoons
They gather together.
Stand on one leg
in all kinds of weather.
***
Flamingos are vocal,
They honk all day long.
It keeps them together
In numbers, and strong.
***
The reason they’re pink is
the pigment ingested,
from brine shrimp and algae,
the foods they’ve digested.
***
When flamingos are landing
On water or ground,
They lift their heads up
And push their feet down.
***
A wonderful sight
Are flamingos in flight.
But they fly and migrate
More often at night.
***
A flock of flamingos,
a ‘flamboyance’ of pink.
Beautiful, joyful,
quite perfect, I think.
**********************
THE WONDER OF POETRY
It’s a supersonic boom
It’s a nuclear explosion
It’s the lightning strike of WOW!
It’s a flash of inspiration.
It’s the energy of a crashing wave
It’s the fuel inside a mind
It’s the jet-stream of imagination
That’s the wonder you will find!
**********************
CHRISTMAS EVE 1906 (From Brant Rock, Massachusetts)
Across the oceans across the miles,
a gift delivered on Christmas Eve.
A message received but this time not in code.
No usual sound of tap-tapping in Morse.
Instead, heard by ships on the Atlantic Ocean,
the sound of a voice, the sound of a song,
‘O, Holy Night’ – what have they done?
Sailors gasped in wonder and awe,
for a sound, never heard,
on a ship, before.
(The Christmas Eve 1906 event, was a scheduled program heard by ships on the Atlantic Ocean. Reginald Fessenden, a Canadian, played the violin, read a passage from the Bible. Fessenden invented AM radio, and broadcast the first audio and voice transmissions).
************************
DANDELION UNIVERSE
Beaming in the Springtime fields,
golden yellow flowers.
Leaves that look like lions teeth
with special healing powers.
***
The flower heads a glow of sun.
The seed heads like the moon.
A perfect globe of gossamer seeds
are here and gone too soon.
***
Dispersing, puffs as light as air,
a million tiny stars
float, across the open skies,
replanting wide and far.
*********************
GROWING
I worry that I’m too small.
I’m six years old and I want to be tall.
***
Mum says not to worry.
There’s plenty of time.
I will grow a little bit every day.
***
I look in the mirror
but I can’t see a change.
Even when I stand on my tiptoes.
***
I eat my vegetables.
I play out in the sun.
I try to be helpful
to everyone.
***
I do all that to help me grow,
Because, mum says, that’s
what it will take.
***
And – when I stand at the doorway,
on my seventh birthday,
in front of the notch
on the post from last year,
I know it worked because – yippee – I’m
TWO INCHES TALLER!
********************
And here is a slightly different meaning for the theme of WONDER
WONDERING
I wonder if…mum got me those new shoes?
I wonder who…chewed my dad’s slippers??
I wonder when…are we going on holiday?
I wonder why…can’t elephants jump?
I wonder what…did dad mean when he said don’t put all your eggs in one basket?
I wonder where…did I leave my coat?
***********************
THE UNIVERSE SINGS
A black hole beats with deep vibrations.
A billion years of dark creations.
***
Comet Halley, from head to tail,
strums a long melodious wail.
***
Planets hum and planets howl.
Some may squeak and some may growl.
***
Chirping, beeping, Planet Earth
warbles out for all it’s worth,
***
sending sound waves into space
calling, ‘hi, we’re the human race.’
***
Mighty Jupiter, haunting, eerie.
Magnetic, explosive, a stormy symphony.
***
Mars howls loud with wind and rage.
A wailing guitar on the stage.
***
Mercury has no audible sound,
but quakes cause vibrations felt through the ground.
***
Uranus, through its thirteen rings
an eerie sound, like Sirens, sings.
***
Saturn’s tunes are low and grumbly.
The oscillating tones are rumbly.
***
Venus bubbles like an underground stream.
An eerie electromagnetic dream.
***
On Neptune high pitched squeaks are heard,
just ike a helium-speaking bird.
***
But all those sounds in space, to hear,
cannot be heard by the human ear.
***
Only when played through sound wave machines,
may we hear the songs the universe sings.
****************************
And a poem for the WONDER of reading!
LIBRARIES
Somewhere near you in a town, you will find,
a free place to visit with reading in mind.
Libraries are there to visit and borrow,
research books today, a novel tomorrow.
The shelves are packed with written delights.
Poetry, novels, with heroes and knights.
Comedy, history, sagas and crime.
Adventures, religion, the beginning of time.
Bookworms are browsing the shelves and the pages.
Lost in the worlds that the authors created.
Losing themselves in wild imagination,
Wowing at the authors powers of creation.
Libraries are waiting to share out their treasure.
Books for the studious, books just for pleasure.
Go to a library and find what you need.
Check out your book to take home and read.
Returning your book by the date that was set.
There might be a fee if the date you forget!
But once it’s returned you can go back for more,
Choosing another to take through the door.
The wonder of libraries will slowly unfold
with pages and pages of words new and old.
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Poems for National Poetry Day: 1st October 2026