I Never Know How Poems Start

I never know how poems start

Introduction My name's Michael Rosen and I write poems. I do other things as well - like talking on the radio - and I also spend a lot of time visiting schools and talking to children about my poems. Sometimes I suggest that they can write in ways I do. I first started writing poems when I was about 16 and I'ue been doing it ever since. Poems come in many different shapes and sizes, they can sound as if all sorts of different people are speaking and they can be about very different sorts of things. They can also be very, very serious, about the most atuful and tragic things, or they can be full of silliness and nonsense - and all sorts in-between.

I never know hotu poems start. Sometimes it's something that I hear. Sometimes it's something I see. Sometimes it's something I remember. Sometimes it's something I imagine. Sometimes it's something I read. Sometimes it's some of these things all at the same time. A thing I'ue heard could be a sound like the screech of a sea gull or someone saying, " I lost my tooth down the toilet"

A thing I've seen could be anything I think looks interesting, like how the back of my hand looks like a map, or an angry man at the bus stop. A thing I remember comes to me when I daydream, like remembering where I used to play, or what my grandmother's house was like. A thing I imagine can also be part of a daydream where I say to mgself, “ What if. . ：： like, '" What if my cat ran away or what if my foot went shopping . . . " A thing I read can be a thought that comes to me as I read, like wondering what people in stories are thinking and remembering.

Wrong We went on holiday with Mr Wrong. Everything we said, he said was Wrong. He asked us if night came before day or day before night. We said that day came before night. He said, Wrong. So we said night came before day. He said, Wrong.

He asked us which came first, Sunday or Monday. We said, Sunday. He said, Wrong. So we said, Monday. He said, Wrong. He asked us if he was telling fibs. We said, yes. He said, Wrong.