National Poetry Day 2016! With a special post from the poet A. Bogie

I totally poached this image online somewhere :)

Today is National Poetry Day 2016! Whoohoo! It is celebrating everything to do with poetry. While not a huge poetry fan, thank to book reviewing I do actually like some poetry now. My favourite are picture books which rhyme, because they are super fun and somehow don't feel like poetry (which is a word I sometimes still back away from). Poetry really is for everyone, and by enjoying the little poetry/rhyming stories I can guarantee there is a poem out there for you. 

While posted a little later in the day than planned (I partially forgot & had a pet die today - see news on Nayu's Crochet Dreams), this is a fun poem about how wonderful poetry is from an author whose book I'll be reviewing soon, A. Bogie. I'll hand you over to her so have a super time falling in love with poetry! 

Yuk! is in rhyme!

A. Bogie's thoughts on poems

Meet A. Bogie!

Do I like to write in rhyme? 

It certainly takes up all my time, 

Just try and make the word: donkey, 

Rhyme with anything, bar ‘wonky’. 

But, if truth be known, I love to rhyme, 

The rise and fall, the words that chime, 

The flowing words, so lyrical, 

Can make stories quite unpredictable. 

Rhyme isn’t just fun to read aloud, 

It’s benefits make me proud. 

It nurtures children to read well, 

Discover words and learn to spell. 

It makes kids practice vocal skills, 

Use their tongues, even learn to trill! 

The melody shows them when to breathe, 

How to phrase sentences with great ease. 

Using memory, predicting sounds, 

Spotting patterns, maths skills abound. 

Rhyme doesn’t just improve linguistics, 

It even helps with statistics. 

But more than teaching all those skills, 

Rhyme can give other great thrills: 

Spending quality time together, 

Cuddled on a sofa, in cold weather. 

Reading stories filled with silliness, 

Funny characters, daft but villainous, 

Sharing excitement, belly laughter, 

Memories of ‘happy ever after’. 

Above all, rhyme helps you tired mums, 

With left over fish fingers in your tums, 

Longing for a glass of wine, 

And the chance to recline. 

For at the end of a busy day, 

Read in rhyme, soothe and sway 

Those darling monsters off to sleep, 

Into a slumber, long and deep. 

*Rhyme also very good for you tired dads too