Writing Poetry for Children

I wrote a new poem today, finished a couple of minutes ago. At first I thought I'd post the poem here on my poetry blog. The more I read through and thought about the poem though, the more I realised the poem was a poem suitable for children, not adults.

I don't mean the poem might not be appreciated by adults, I simply mean the poem is suited more to the poetry market for children. This market is a lucrative one, where poems, if accepted for publication, might earn much more than a single poem might earn in the market for poetry aimed for adults.

I'm not saying it's all about the money, necessarily, but the thought of my poems being read by children and possibly turning them on the the idea of writing their own poems is terribly exciting to me. I've had poems published by the NSW School Magazine.

These magazines come out every term, and they're aimed at three different age ranges. They're produced as glossy magazines, and are illustrated by top of the range children's illustrators. I'm proud to have had my poems published there, and I know many good quality poems have as well.

So, the poem will only have a chance of appearing on this blog if it's rejected a few times, or after it has been published elsewhere. I like the idea of this poem, it's true to me, and I feel it's a good poem, a rhyming poem, in a simple style, but with some interesting ideas for children to think about.

Of course, when I re-read the poem again before I send it off, I may hate it and think it's dumb, I'm happy with it right now though, so that's good. I have the footy on the TV at the moment too, and the Adealdie Crows and thrashing Geelong, and that's not good, it's GREAT!