Polar poetry
Working with Kaddy Benyon, a poet based in the Scott Polar Research Institute, at an event on 31 October 2012 during the Festival of Ideas, children were encouraged to produce poems on polar themes. We hope you enjoy the amazing results as much as we do! You can also read Kaddy's poems written on the day.
The penguin
Smart and colourful,
God made you so that there would be colour among the ice.
Tell me where you go and what you do
Fluffy and light with your bowtie, you make me happy.
Adam Blackburn age 6
The polar bear
Soft, smooth and snuggly, yet fierce, huge and wild
God created you so there would be something different in the world
When I look at you I am worried, frightened and afraid
But you remind me of my Nana and Grandad in the snow and ice and then I think
of you as my best friend.
Kathryn Blackburn age 8
The seal
A giggly caveman with a smooth, wobbly and firm belly
I wonder what it could be
If he spoke to me I'm sure he'd ask
What's for tea?
Like a full-bellied caveman he wobbles across the ice
The person who made him must be really nice
They got him just right
Sophie Everitt age 10
The polar bear
I am a polar bear
I'm very cold and smooth
I dive into the water like an Eskimo
I wish I had more food
I am not strong and I am hungry
I feel like soft cabbage
I want to be warmer
Henry Everitt age 6
Slide the Penguin
Your penguin suit looks like my Daddy going to work,
Black and white, soft and cuddly.
Sliding from a mummy egg.
Come and play with me
And make me smile.
Zara Kipping age 5
Penguin
Penguin waddling across the ice
Extremely cute and furry
Never stand between me and my child
Gliding across the ice like a snowflake.
Under the water
I glide and swim.
Nearly finished my day, let's go back to sleep.
Olivia Kipping age 7
Little Seal
She looked frozen in place with the cold winds blowing around her,
flecked in icy snow.
That was how I met the Little Seal.
She was made by an Inuit, crafted from stone, ready to catch her fish.
She was telling me to "back off", I could tell from the look in her eyes.
I reached out to touch her.
She felt smooth, sleek and shiny as her tail slips through my fingers into the deep depths of the icy Northern Waters.
The hungry Polar Bear
The hungry Polar Bear
Pads along the ice
Imagining all the fish
Today he will entice
He had pricked ears,
A swinging tail
He's off to fish,
He never fails
This Polar Beauty,
This furry beast
Is off back home,
Heading to the east
The Telescope
You are so clever, you fold up small.
You are smooth and leathery,
I want to look through you.
You remind me of the arctic and space
Please can you tell me about everything you've seen.
James Goodricke
The following poems were submitted via our Suggetions Box - thank you to everyone who contributed.
The Fur Hat
In the Antarctic I'm very cold
but with my hat, my head
is warm. I feel soft, warm fur
against my head, so if the wind
comes I won't be dead.
But I am not only warm up high,
the rest of my body is covered
in bearskin, safe and dry.
Anonymous
Arctic Prayer
May we call upon the spirits
Of the Arctic –
To help us to make
Our lives complicated.
Anonymous
Star
My huskie dog named Star
explores the South Pole
with me, jumping around
and playing with the seals
and penguins. The snow
is cold and the sun bright,
but we are never out of each
other's sight, for friends
we are in this cold, beautiful land.
Scarlett
Old Snowsuit
The thick fur coat,
as soft as a bear.
The comfy, cuddly helmet
so nice to wear.
The great goggles
thick and tight.
The heavy-huge coat
so big and bright.
The cosy, fine hat
as warm as an oven.
The tall, fluffy boots,
high as heaven.
Eva age 9