Cardiff Children's LitFest. Photos. Poetry.

Here are some photos of my poetry performance in Cardiff Central Library as part of the Children's LitFest.

I am performing Spiky Hedgehog, which is one of my oldest and most favourite poems, which has actions for the children to join in with, and is always hugely noisy and enjoyable.

 This photo I really like!

At rest again.

Many thanks to Jennifer Haywood for the photos. 

www.francescakay.co.uk

haiku. ice. writer's block.

I'll have to find another way into the field until the thaw

beneath an ice coat -
immobile, imagining
warmth and open fields











                                                                                       www.francescakay.co.uk

Cardiff Children's LitFest. Poetry. Libraries. Fun.

After a rampaging poetry reading at Cardiff Central Library with an audience of young children, I staggered out into the fresh air with a slight headache from laughing so much,  and went to look at the children's poetry exhibition in the Old Library.

I had worked for a morning at Penyrenglyn Primary School, and some of the children's work was exhibited. It looked wonderful, enlarged from the original A4, and displayed in the beautiful exhibition space, along with lots of work from other schools, who had all had visits from writers.
We had written about Can't You Sleep Little Bear?  

It doesn't get much better than this - to perform poetry and songs to a young audience enjoying words and ideas, and then to see the results of workshop work displayed in a lovely exhibition.
All thanks to the Cardiff Children's Literature Festival. I am proud to have been part of it.
www.cardiffchildrenslitfest.com
www.francescakay.co.uk

haiku. eggs. ideas.

I was thinking how marvellous it is that when writing poetry with a group of children, I can give them a subject and a structure for their work, but each young writer produces their own unique poem.

free ranging
the same - different -
half a dozen ways to look
at the same subject

www.francescakay.co.uk

Poem. slicing onions. different recipe.

I just realised the truth of it, onions no longer bring tears when I am slicing them. A little like realising that something that was once very important no longer matters. Or it could just be that red onions are milder than the others.

Here I am taking the photo. Note the cat lying in his winter position on the radiator behind me.

www.francescakay.co.uk

Haiku. below zero

below zero
quiet caring night
carefully lays a blanket
over sleeping grass


                              When is this cold weather going to go away?

www.francescakay.co.uk

poem. beach huts. car park

long stay

parked up
until
the winter ticket
runs
out





I wonder how much it costs to purchase a car park ticket for a beach hut? And how you work out how many hours/months it is likely to be there?

www.francescakay.co.uk

Haiku. spring. different light.

Spring sunshine, changes -
a train floats above rooftops
swans float on green fields

www.francescakay.co.uk

Poem. Heralds of change. Daffodils

-->

Heralds of change

A splash of cold as

sharp spring rain is falling,

Nature wakes.

Stout stems and long leaves

moving in harsh spring wind,

New season comes.

Look at these flowers

glowing in pale sunshine,

Winter creeps away.

Bright trumpets pointing

through spring to summer glory,

The world is turning.

Wild daffodils are my favourites, so dainty and yet so hardy in the cold days of February and March. 

This poem has rather more capital letters and punctuation than I usually use, but it's spring, so why not!
 www.francescakay.co.uk

Haiku. frosty morning. March 1st

March 1st and the garden is shivering, waiting for the thin warmth of the spring sun.

daylight

early spring morning -
sunshine slowly unbuttons
a cold coat of frost

www.francescakay.co.uk