Twenty Reasons Why My Notebook is Very Messy

Sue Hardy-Dawson

Because I sometimes write in the dark or whilst staring out the window.
Because sometimes I accidentally doodle when I’m thinking.

Because my pen is possessed by the evil splodge monster.

Because a piece of cheese is not a rubber.

Because trains are wobbly.

Because I need to find another word for because and the thesaurus knocks my tea over onto the cat, who then jumps on my notebook.

Since…as…for the reason that… Because there aren’t many words for because apparently; and anyway I had to cross most of them out because I didn’t like them.

Because I've been drawing with black charcoal and suddenly had an idea and the paper is now the same colour as my nose.

Because my puppy tried to eat it after digging a small hole in the lawn with his nose and stealing spaghetti from the bin.
Because my notebook decided to take up tight-rope walking in my absence and fell in the bath (my son told me this so it must be true).

Because I couldn’t find a beautiful and poetic rhyme for orang-utan.

Because my spell checker is sulking and turns itself off and then tells me lies!
Because my ice-lolly melted whilst I was studying a cloud.

Because I had a really funny thought as I took a sip from a full glass of blackcurrant juice.

Because my brain went to bed and left my body in charge of a pen.

Because I had to remove the cover after slipping whilst writing in a field full of cows and their strange brown footprints.
Because my sun lotion leaks and someone just belly-flopped into the swimming pool.

Because life moults and I attract all the bits.

Because the lady next door was cutting her hedge so I wrote the same word forty-two times.

Because it’s difficult to write whilst being carried through the treetops by a dragon. (OK, so I made that one up. But it’s probably true and I have such a vivid imagination the effect is probably the same.)

New Year Resolutions

We’d like to wish all our followers a Happy New Year. Let’s hope that in 2011 you will all write lots and lots of wonderful poems. Have you made any New Year resolutions? Here are a few of ours.

1 Write something in your note book everyday without fail.

2 Always have a book of poems by your bed in 2011.

3 Read a poem every day.

4 Seek out some new poets. Read a new poet every week.

5 Take a photo every day and use it as a focus for a poem.

6 Start a poetry magazine with your sister, brother or best friend.

7 Give friends and family a book of poems for their birthday.

8 Enter lots of poetry competitions! (There’s one on this blog. If you haven’t entered it yet – please do!)

9 Visit The Secret Lives of Poets every week.

10 Teach the cat to type properly. (Sue suggested that one. But she does have a very clever cat!)

Keeping a Notebook

Welcome to the first entry in this new blog. It’s all very exciting. And it reminds me of starting a brand new notebook. I’m always a little bit nervous, a little bit scared – and a little bit hesitant – when I start a fresh notebook. I wonder how it will turn out. Will it be full of fantastic poems or full of rubbish? By the time the notebook’s finished it is usually a mixture of both. Because a notebook is where you write down ideas, things you’ve seen and things you’ve heard. If you’re a poet or a writer you are always looking and listening, just in case you hear something that might one day be a poem or a story. And some of your jottings and doodles will become something special and some, quite naturally, won’t.

And this blog is hopefully going to be a bit like a notebook. We have six famous children’s poets – all waiting to discuss things, write about their favourite poets, give you ideas for writing poems and… well… all sorts of things. And we hope it’s going to be fantastic.

So please comment on all our posts. This blog is for you. Tell us what you’d like to read about or talk about. And tell us about your notebook. We’re looking forward to hearing from you.