Kate Williams

This month’s poems are for children…

Recipe for Autumn

Mix:

A tree-top of treasure – bronze, brass and gold –
To light up the twilight and keep out the cold

A fistful of fog (but how to get through?)
An owl’s eye of eeriness – twit-tu-wit-woo!

A skyful of swallows (but where do they go?)
A handful of hail
A spoonful of snow

A huddle of hedgehogs, hidden below
A wisp of a whisker – whose, I don’t know

A live-wire of lightning
A black cloud of booms
A lighthouse of lanterns and bright, lamp-lit rooms

A flash of fast flickers
A splash of hot sparks
A crash of big dippers
A dash of deep dark

Stir in September, October, November
And a free-fall of fun for the coming December

Drizzle with dazzles to keep out the ghouls
And other such hassles like silly school rules

And there is your list for a true autumn pie
Give it a twist, and serve with blue sky

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To Cook Your Hallowe’en Concoction

Mix your potion, leave for a day,
then in slow-motion do as I say:

Whisk it, churn it, twist it, turn it,
shake it, bake it, boil it, burn it.

Flip it, slop it – try to stop it…
grip it, tip it, catch it, drop it.

Grill it, roast it, chill it, toast it,
wrap it, pack it, stamp it, post it.

Send to Mars, round a circuit of stars,
then stick it in an old, cracked, dirty vase.

Leave on a rack in midnight’s black,
’til you’re ready for a tasty snack…

Ready? Steady? Get set, please!
Just do these then stand at ease:

Prick it, kick it, smack it, whack it,
add a little grated cheese,
spin it in a hat ’til it all goes

SPLAT!…

and serve with chips and peas.

Remember, Remember!

Once a year we make a phantasmagorical sight:
we set alight the cold, dark night –
make a bonanza of  jewels, rainbows, stars,
zipping, zapping colourbursts, zooming up to Mars.

For a few magic minutes, we all gaze.
Then we have to wait another
three-hundred-and-sixty-five days.

Copyright (all poems and illustrations): Kate Williams