Poetry and Creative Writing for All

Louis J Raphael

Educated in Peterborough, I played guitar in folk and blues clubs in the 60's — left for Australia in 1969 and started writing poetry. The pace of life, getting married and having the first of our five children soon put a stop to my writing. We returned to England in 1972 and I am now settled in Watford. I have been fighting skin cancer for a number of years and know that being blessed with five wonderful children, the youngest is thirteen, along with seven(soon to be eight) grand children, that time is important and the way that one dedicates the time we have is not to be wasted. I write mainly for the children and grandchildren now, ( when time permits) though some things are so important in life, they have to be written about also.

TOBY’S FLEA

A flea lived on the knee of Toby
Toby said, “Get off of me!”
‘Oh, don’t be mean to me,’ said flea.
‘I really love it on your knee.’

‘I used to live upon your bottom,
But you couldn’t see me there.
It was rather smelly too,
I much prefer it here.’

So now he lives on Toby’s knee
For all to see; Toby and flea
And although it is erroneously,
Toby calls him, Ant-on-knee.

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FINKLESNOD

As I was groppelsnodling, 
one summer’s winter day
I came across a finklesnod
All by the roadway there, then
And said I to this finklesnod
‘oh, poddlingbodlesflad’
and said this finklesnod to me
‘ I think that you are mad!’

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SCHOOL DAYS

I wasn’t very good at sums.
Some were. Some weren’t.
But I had a lot of friendly chums.
Some were. Some weren’t.

I held my own, in history.
Some did. Some didn’t.
Although most of it was a mystery.
Some understood. Some just stood.

I worked quite hard in English.
Some could. Some couldn’t.
The rugby field is what I wished.
Some did. Some didn’t.

Physics- what was it all about?
Some knew. Some didn’t.
Ohms and watts, volts, no doubt
some knew. Some wouldn’t.

Science; - atoms and element
Some worked it out. Some mucked it up.
Some didn’t know what the ‘ell ‘e meant.
Some worked it out. Some blew themselves up.

School was really not for me.
I made some good friends. Some didn’t,
But those friends meant a lot to me.
Some didn’t, but a lot did!

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QUESTIONS

Do birds fly backwards in the rain?
And if I throw a ball up, whilst on a train
Why doesn’t it zoom to the back of the carriage?
And why are there so many jokes about marriage?

Why do I have to go to school?
Why can’t I stay at home, play with my ball?
I have so many things I want to do
There just isn’t the time to do them all!

Why do I have to go to bed?
When I’m not tired, it’s all so sad.
And when I’m asleep in the land of dreams
they make me get up – it’s mad it seems!

My dad said, “Do I want a spank?”
Is he mad! Is he a crank?
Of course I don’t, I’m sure he knows
I’d rather have a tickle on my toes.

Why is the world so complicated?
And school and work so overrated
Why can’t I just play with my friends?
Until I’m tired and the game ends.

I’m not going to make my children go to school
Or wake them when their tired, I’d be a fool.
We’ll play together the whole day long
and eat cakes and jelly and sing funny songs.

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THE TRAIN JOURNEY

Rattle, scattle, rattle, scattle
Over rails, flashing past cattle
Grazing in their fields in Battle
Rattle, scattle, rattle, scattle.

Trees shoot by and fields and bridges
Sheep and flies and cows and midges
Old ruined castles up on ridges
Farmers ploughing behind hedges

Whoo oo goes the train
As we zoom through the station in the rain
Just like Thomas the blue tank engine
On and on, never ending

I like trains and when I grow big
I shall be a train driver, ‘cause I like it
When we go fast out on a trip
To exciting places where we can sit

And watch the trains go by

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THE UNIVERSE

Is there really life on Mars?
I often wonder about the stars,
Man in the moon and little green men
Do they need oxygen or nitrogen?

Can they talk and communicate?
Can they speak English or Martianate?
Do the tell jokes and love each other?
They must have a father and a mother.

Do they have spaceships to fly through space?
Are they more advanced than the human race?
Is Earth much nicer than where they come from?
It must be for them to travel through stardom

Now we send rockets into outer space
Seeking life other than our race.
Will we find them? I don’t know,
But I keep on wondering as I grow.

I’m going to study the universe
Learn about stars and planets, in due course
And one day, with everything I’ve been taught,
I might become an astronaught.

Then they may wonder if there’s life on Earth,
Little pink people full of mirth,
Friendly and smiley in big space ships
I wonder if we’ll pass each other, on our trips.

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Submission Guidelines: Poems of no more than 30 lines in length each will be considered.