Archive for the ‘Poetry for Kids’ Category

Frazzle Pazzle

December 6, 2025

Whackadoodle 
Walk your poodle
Eat a noodle
With some strudel

Whoopsie daisy
Love your crazy
Loopy lazy
Doesn't faze me

Hunky dory
Drive your lorry
Sing a story
Don't ignore me

Under over
Four-leaf clover
Cliffs of Dover
Play with Rover

Prince and pauper
Lemon dropper
Happy hopper
Never stop her

Razzle dazzle
Frazzle pazzle

Words unravel
Happy travels

by Richard W. Bray

Dance because you’re not a dancer

January 25, 2025


I only have one thing to say
What are you gonna do today?

It's not a quiz
There's no wrong answer
Dance because you're not a dancer

Cook some eggs
Take a shower
Photograph the Eiffel Tower

Find a game
You like to play
Lollygag your time away

Have a beverage
With a friend
Read a novel to the end

Walk your dog
Smell some flowers
Sit around and talk for hours

Meet a deadline
With your team
Binge a show about a queen

Wax a roadster
Hike the hills
Debate the merits of free will

It's not about what others do
Do the thing that's right for you


by Richard W. Bray

Romp

July 23, 2024


Eyes and hearts and thoughts and tongues and souls
Filling out the forms and playing roles

Lilies roses time and weeds and stones
Dancing dreaming walking all alone

Beauty sorrow wind and breath and joy
Living rousing romps of girls and boys

Love and truth and grief and spring and sun
Singing every day until you're done


by Richard W. Bray

Frazzlepat

July 4, 2024

Hyenas hustle
Curtains rustle
Candles flicker
Spirits snicker

What's that
Frazzlepat?
Jiggling bed's
Just in my head

Somewhere
Over the cuckoo's nest
I shut my eyes
But there isn't any rest

by Richard W. Bray

Wystan and Emily

May 11, 2024


life comes at me in rhythm
words come at me in rhyme
toil teaching wisdom
the only place is time

walk along the seashore
frolicking in the snow
tasting all the sunshine
existing as i go

Wystan and Emily
sang a sonnet just for me
silently throughout the years
it danced a journey to my ears


by Richard W. Bray


Miscommunication

April 7, 2024

Got a new snork vorple
It's really kuper-kippy
It keeps me wipple-wapple
When the wunk is wappy-wippy

I don't like your gornpop
You're such a norky noobler
The mips are full of zanzi-plips
Don't jim-jomp on the goobler

When I was young, we porpled
We confoobled for a song
But now the nukstips borbalize
And snirkbob all day long

Don't call me a fubble flooper
Just cuz I'm purpipsy
The dinder dob is nabby dab
Someday you'll bloop the blipsy

by Richard W. Bray

Winkle and Wankle and Wunkle

September 2, 2023


Winkle and Wankle and Wunkle
Got attacked by an angry old skunkle

Wankle and Wunkle and Winkle
We're quite overwhelmed by the stinkle

Wunkle and Winkle and Wankle
Took all of their change to the bankle

Wankle and Winkle and Wunkle
Bought a new house for their uncle

Wunkle and Wankle and Winkle
Have an auto that's purple and pinkle

Winkle and Wunkle and Wankle
Keep plenty of gas in the tankle

Wankle and Winkle and Wunkle
Dribble and pass and slam dunkle

Wunkle and Wankle and Winkle
Roller on skates at the rinkle

Winkle and Wunkle and Wankle
Often smell musty and dankle

by Richard W. Bray

The list of acceptable ideas

June 6, 2023

I once met a traveler
From a foreign land
He beguiled our village
Taking about his clan

He told us thoughts were free
Like the air we breathe
And there isn't any list
Of acceptable ideas

We laughed and hollered
We slapped our knees
That man was crazy
As a basket full of bees 

Without instructions
Nothing makes sense
You'll say the wrong thing
You'll surely give offense

We showed him the list
That's pinned to the wall
In every building
And meeting hall

It tells us what to think
It tells us what to say
Folks who disagree
Are quickly sent away

The list brings order
The list brings peace
The list brings love
And harmony

Without the list
Life would be insane
Who would we bless?
And who would we blame?

That kooky old traveler
Just shook his head
He sneaked away quiet
When we were still in bed

by Richard W. Bray

wishy washy boo hoo

May 9, 2023

idiotic therapeutic 
wishy washy boo hoo
sticks and stones
Do words break bone?
crazy as a cuckoo

stop your sobbin 
silly robin
wings to fly 
beak for bobbin
skippin to my lu-lu

trigger warning
every morning 
scaredy cat
don't do that
just accept your boo boo

toughen up
buttercup
batter up
and to yourself 
be true true

by Richard W. Bray

the quiet of the sky

January 21, 2023

The quiet of the sky
The passion of the trees
The wisdom of the rocks
Educating me

Unremembered kindness
Murmurs in the breeze
The wonders of a world
That willed itself to be

Experience the grandeur
Of a world that isn’t clean
Open up your senses
Pull away from the screen

by Richard W. Bray