National Poetry Day

(The theme of last year's poetry day in the UK was heroes and heroines; it happened to be on my birthday, which must have been just a coincidence !)

We are a poetry nation
for one spectacular day

when all heroes and heroines
find their wordy way

citizens skip breakfast
and grab a dusty tin

filled with little-used words
that just escaped the bin

once we put them together
on the door of the rusty fridge

before we got a rescue dog
with a back like a rocky ridge

he tried to shift each piece
with the help of a giant paw

but the small magnetic words
often fell to the floor

or stuck in slobbery chops
like exotic doggy chews

some we managed to save
others we’d simply lose

a hero is not a soldier
or climber of some peak

or world champion driver
or pop star of the week

it can be any person
retrieving scattered words

joining them together
making magical birds

that fly from the page
and sing in the trees

or manufacture honey
like industrious bees