Creative Writing

This children’s poem lists lots of different worlds which each infer something  about themselves simply by their title and spark off a child’s imagination.  I used the poem with an assembly of 5 to 7 year olds and asked them to choose a place and use the title to imagine more about it and describe it in detail, making a fabulous descriptive exercise.

I went into a primary school just the other day.
I found that all the children had such a lot to say.
They talked of all the places that I didn’t know existed:
Details they would not have shared, if I had not persisted.

So after they’d invited me into their special world
The beauty of imagination gradually unfurled.
It opened up no end of possibilities to me
Of lands and times that, without them, I would have failed to see.

To Snot and Bogie Island I didn’t care to go,
But Chocolate Gravy Pie-land, Mmmmm, that I’d like to know.
There was so much to hear about The Fairytale Stairs
That take you to a universe that’s without fears and cares.

Where characters, like Phlug and Squish, are everybody’s friends,
And clocks aren’t needed as the fun and laughter never ends.
But hearing of the Planet Where all the Children Rule
Frightened me, and all the other adults in the school!

So then we floated to the World of all Forgotten Dreams;
Fluffy, silly, giggly things all end up there, it seems.
The Endless Birthday Time-loop, and the Land of Things To Come,
Lost Treasure Black-hole and Wish-World all sound like brilliant fun.

But as an adult my imagination’s at a loss
So children, tell us more, for on this subject YOU’RE THE BOSS!

When I read this poem out to the children of Swinton Fitzwilliam Primary School, the favourite world seemed to be Wish World.  Consequently, I asked them to describe it in more detail as they saw it in their minds, and the detailed list that they provided resulted in another poem called “Wish World”

Tagged as: children's poem, children's poems, creative writing, ideas for creative writing, imagination