Tag: Poetry/Australia

For the Dome Poetry group’s May meeting, our poetry assignment/poem is as follows

1.       We are each given a poetry book. (They are all different.)
2.       We each select a poem from the book that we like or dislike.
3.       We write our opinion of the poem in poetry form.
4.       We write a separate poem in the same style as the original…about any subject.
5.       OPTIONAL: Points 3 & 4 could be amalgamated. ie one poem

The poetry book I received was “The C.J. Dennis Collection.”… a famous Australian poet and author, known as “The Prince of Writers.”
I chose to amalgamate Points 3 & 4 and wrote my poem ‘I Am Not a Songbird’, in the rhyming style of C.J. Dennis’s whimsical poem “Heredity”, which I have scanned and attached below my poem.

I Am Not a Songbird

You may ask me (said the Corella)
Why am I so noisy and obnoxious
Like a protester with a loud hailer
At a meeting of the Labor Party Caucus

You may ask me why I’m not a songbird
Instead of a critter that’s always squawking
In a screeching way that no one else can hear
I offer no excuses for my chaotic talking

Yet, I’m all for a sweet lullaby
But for my breed, a soft tune is impossible
I’m often repetitive like a buzzing blowfly
However, I am quite pretty and aeronautical

My vocalisations are certainly unique
And it’s how I communicate with my girls
So, get used to my cheeky squeak
And enjoy my showy swirls and twirls

Ivor Steven (c) May 2025