Monday 27 January 2014

From Poetry to PDF

Wow 2014!

Let's get off to healthy start to the year! (You'll get the point of the vegetables if you read on!)



This month's post is a bit of a mixture. I'm all steamed up about poetry this month. I love humorous poems and have included a few here for your entertainment!

The first is by one of my favourite poets Adrian Mitchell, it's called 'Dumb Insolence' and its for all you people who think that to rebel is to shout your cause from the roof tops or to physically display your anger.

Dumb Insolence

I'm big for ten years old
Maybe that's why they get at me

Teachers, parents, cops
Always getting at me

When they get at me

I don't hit 'em
They can do you for that

I don't swear at 'em
They can do you for that

I stick my hands in my pockets
And stare at them

And while I stare at them
I think about sick

They call it dumb insolence

They don't like it
But they can't do you for it

I've been done before
They say if I get done again

They'll put me in a home
So I do dumb insolence


© Adrian Mitchell

Number two is for those of you who cannot spell... When I was about eight years old I had a big argument with my teacher, who up until then I had loved dearly, it was the moment I realised that teachers don't always do what is necessary. I had written cud and wud all through a 5 page essay and she shouted at me so badly and told me to look them up in the dictionary. I cried because I couldn't find cud and wud in the dictionary and all seemed so impossible. I now appreciate that with 35 pupils in the class she didn't have much patience to explain my error however I do try not to follow her example.

Gust Becos I Cud Not Spel

Brian Patten

Gust becos I cud not spel
It did not mean I was daft
When the boys in school red my riting
Some of them laffed

But now I am the dictater
They have to rite like me
Utherwise they cannot pas
Ther GCSE

Some of the girls were ok
But those who laffed a lot
Have al bean rownded up
And hav recintly bean shot

The teecher who corrected my speling
As not been shot at al
But four the last fifteen howers
As bean standing up against a wal

He has to stand ther until he can spel
Figgymisgrugifooniyn the rite way
I think he will stand ther for ever
I just inventid it today

 
This is such a beautiful poem because through the use of metaphor it enables youngsters to think beyond there own small needs and see that in the world there are bigger problems. If you were a vegetable what would you be? Why?  
 
 
Marshall
George Macbeth

It occurred to Marshall
that if he were a vegetable, he’d
be a bean. Not
one of your thin, stringy
green beans, or your

dry, marbly
Burlotti beans. No, he'd be
a broad bean,
a rich, nutritious,
meaningful bean,

alert for advantages,
inquisitive with potatoes,
mixing with every kind
and condition of vegetable,
and a good friend

to meat and lager. Yes, he'd
leap from his huge
rough pod with a loud
popping sound
into the pot: always

in hot water
and out of it with a soft
heart inside
his horny carapace. He'd
carry the whole

world's hunger on
his broad shoulders, green
with best butter
or brown with gravy. And if
some starving Indian saw this

flesh bleeding
when the gas was turned on
or the knife went in
he'd accept the homage and prayers,
and become a god, and die like a man,

which, as things were, wasn't so easy.
 
 
PDF
 
There are some changes to the blog: you can 'recommend' it now and be notified via email of new posts.

There will be a PDF section coming in the next week or so which will help those of you who are studying for Advanced/Proficiency C1 or C2 exams. I have prepared lots of vocabulary and ideas for a variety of topics in the style of discussions, gap fill and matching exercises to help you with essay writing. Each topic took an hour in class so much less when studying alone at home. I will add to this section every month so you have a whole selection of ideas and vocabulary on various subjects. There are answers pages too!!!

Miss!