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Happy Poems

Roger McGough
Chapters (133)
  1. Cover
  2. Title page
  3. A Smile
  4. Yes
  5. The Laughter Forecast
  6. from Pippa Passes
  7. The Feeling of Having a Good Day
  8. To See a World
  9. Hope on a Rope
  10. The Teacher’s Gift
  11. High Achievers
  12. Picking Teams
  13. Best Friends
  14. Oath of Friendship
  15. May You Always
  16. Squeezes
  17. Don’t
  18. Mother to Son
  19. Two People
  20. You Have a Body
  21. Three Good Things
  22. The Cupboard
  23. BOY GIRL
  24. Isn’t My Name Magical?
  25. Keeping Wicket
  26. My Sister
  27. Middle Child
  28. Siblings
  29. A Blessing
  30. Paintings that Move
  31. Heroes
  32. Cats
  33. Cat
  34. Charlotte’s Dog
  35. Tell It to the Dog
  36. A Meerkat Lullaby
  37. Weird Wildlife
  38. Mad Gardener’s Song
  39. The Blind Men and the Elephant
  40. Mr McGuire
  41. Wonderful Worms
  42. Song of Mr Toad
  43. The Frog
  44. The Brushbaby
  45. The Porcupie
  46. Little Trotty Wagtail
  47. The Cuckoo
  48. The Eagle
  49. Be Like the Bird
  50. The Bird’s Nest
  51. The Hen
  52. Four Ducks on a Pond
  53. The Prayer of the Little Ducks
  54. I Saw a Ship a-Sailing
  55. Penelope’s Hats
  56. The Look
  57. Snakestanger
  58. The Bee’s Knees
  59. Bees
  60. Spelling Bees
  61. Poetry
  62. The Uncertainty of the Poet
  63. OIC
  64. The WOW!
  65. Travel
  66. From a Railway Carriage
  67. The Six Strings
  68. Tarantella
  69. This Poem . . .
  70. The Strawberry-Yogurt Smell of Words
  71. A Dictionary of Snow
  72. To Lalla, Reading my Verses Topsy-Turvy
  73. The Dictionary Bird
  74. Driven to Distraction
  75. Pencil World
  76. Bookish
  77. Just a Book?
  78. Today I Read a Bus Stop
  79. Wise One
  80. Apostrophe
  81. Comma
  82. Comparisons
  83. Back Room Boy
  84. A Song about Myself
  85. A Boy’s Song
  86. The Magic Pebble
  87. The Magic of the Brain
  88. I Saw a Peacock
  89. The Grammarian Saw a Peacock
  90. What is Pink?
  91. First Morning
  92. A Feather from an Angel
  93. The Treasures
  94. A Memory
  95. A Drop in the Ocean
  96. Voices of Water
  97. Roots
  98. Bulb
  99. from Home Thoughts from Abroad
  100. A Slash of Blue
  101. Loveliest of Trees
  102. The Sensation of Well-Being
  103. In the Tree’s Defence
  104. from Blueberries
  105. Beetroot
  106. Fish and Chips
  107. The Potatoes My Dad Cooks
  108. The Storm
  109. The Wind in a Frolic
  110. The Windmill
  111. Daybreak
  112. The Moon and a Cloud
  113. The Star
  114. Star
  115. Stars
  116. Comet
  117. Winter Morning
  118. February Twilight
  119. Night
  120. One Bright September Morning
  121. Pleasant Sounds
  122. Where Go the Boats?
  123. The Cataract of Lodore
  124. Empty Places
  125. Out in the Desert
  126. Contentment
  127. Sun is Laughing
  128. Changing Places
  129. Smile
  130. Acknowledgements
  131. About the Author
  132. Praise for Roger McGough
  133. Also available from Macmillan

Cover

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Title page

images

A Smile

A Smile

Smiling is infectious,

you catch it like the flu.

When someone smiled at me today

I started smiling too.

I passed around the corner

and someone saw my grin.

When he smiled, I realized

I’d passed it on to him.

I thought about my smile and then

I realized its worth.

A single smile like mine could travel

right around the earth.

If you feel a smile begin

don’t leave it undetected.

Let’s start an epidemic quick

and get the world infected.

Jez Alborough

Yes

Yes

A smile says: Yes.

A heart says: Blood.

When the rain says: Drink

The earth says: Mud.

The kangaroo says: Trampoline.

Giraffes say: Tree.

A bus says: Us,

While a car says: Me.

Lemon trees say: Lemons.

A jug says: Lemonade.

The villain says: You’re wonderful.

The hero: I’m afraid.

The forest says: Hide and Seek.

The grass says: Green and Grow.

The railway says: Maybe.

The prison says: No.

The millionaire says: Take.

The beggar says: Give.

The soldier cries: Mother!

The baby sings: Live.

The river says: Come with me.

The moon says: Bless.

The stars say: Enjoy the Light.

The sun says: Yes.

Adrian Mitchell

The Laughter Forecast

The Laughter Forecast

Today will be humorous

With some giggly patches,

Scattered outbreaks of chuckling in the south

And smiles spreading from the east later,

Widespread chortling

Increasing to gale-force guffaws towards evening.

The outlook for tomorrow

Is hysterical.

Sue Cowling

from Pippa Passes

from Pippa Passes

The year’s at the spring

And day’s at the morn;

Morning’s at seven;

The hillside’s dew-pearled;

The lark’s on the wing;

The snail’s on the thorn:

God’s in His heaven –

All’s right with the world!

Robert Browning

The Feeling of Having a Good Day

The Feeling of Having a Good Day

Hallelujah –

I’m awake!

This day belongs to me

and I’m its favourite.

It wants to lick me

like a dog.

The world

is a balloon

that’s on my string.

I’ll get a prize

at school assembly

for being me,

then all the lessons

will be about

my awesomeness

and at break

I’ll kick the football

to Australia.

I can see it in the mirror

when I smile –

I have electric teeth!

Joanne Limburg

To See a World

To See a World

To see a world in a grain of sand

And a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour.

William Blake

Hope on a Rope

Hope on a Rope

If you don’t

want to lose hope,

tie it to a rope and pull

yourself to safety. Because

hope has the power to lift

you up – whether your

troubles are

light or

w

e

i

g

h

t

y

.

Brian Bilston

The Teacher’s Gift

The Teacher’s Gift

(Margarette Nicholson, 1909–85)

Every time I tell the time