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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

And wish your wish comes true

For the magic in this pebble

Has been waiting here for you.

Roger McGough

The Magic of the Brain

The Magic of the Brain

Such a sight I saw:

An eight-sided kite surging up into a cloud

Its eight tails streaming out as if they were one.

It lifted my heart as starlight lifts the head

Such a sight I saw.

And such a sound I heard.

One bird through dim winter light as the day was closing

Poured out a song suddenly from an empty tree.

It cleared my head as water refreshes the skin

Such a sound I heard.

Such a smell I smelled:

A mixture of roses and coffee, of green leaf and warmth.

It took me to gardens and summer and cities abroad,

Memories of meetings as if my past friends were here

Such a smell I smelled.

Such soft fur I felt:

It wrapped me around, soothing my winter-cracked skin,

Not gritty or stringy or sweaty but silkily warm

As my animal slept on my lap, and we both breathed content

Such soft fur I felt.

Such food I tasted:

Smooth-on-tongue soup, and juicy crackling of meat,

Greens like fresh fields, sweet-on-your-palate peas,

Jellies and puddings with fragrance of fruit they are made from

Such good food I tasted.

Such a world comes in:

Far world of the sky to breathe in through your nose

Near world you feel underfoot as you walk on the land.

Through your eyes and your ears and your mouth and your brilliant brain –

Such a world comes in.

Jenny Joseph

I Saw a Peacock

I Saw a Peacock

I saw a peacock with a fiery tail

I saw a blazing comet drop down hail

I saw a cloud wrapped with ivy round

I saw an oak creep along the ground

I saw an ant swallow up a whale

I saw the sea brim full of ale

I saw a Venice glass five fathoms deep

I saw a well full of men’s tears that weep

I saw red eyes all of flaming fire

I saw a house bigger than the moon and higher

I saw the sun at twelve o clock at night

I saw the man who saw this wondrous sight.

Anon.

The Grammarian Saw a Peacock

The Grammarian Saw a Peacock

I saw a peacock

A blazing comet with a fiery tail

A cloud drop down hail

An oak wrapped with ivy round

An ant creep along the ground

The sea swallow up a whale

A Venice glass brim full of ale

A well five fathoms deep

Red eyes of men’s tears that weep

A house all of flaming fire

The sun bigger than the moon and higher

At twelve o clock at night

I saw the man who saw this wondrous sight.

RMCG

What is Pink?

What Is Pink?

What is pink? a rose is pink

By a fountain’s brink.

What is red? a poppy’s red