Category Archives: Poetry

Oh, where is my Teddy?

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Oh, where is my Teddy?
I can’t go to bed
If I haven’t got Teddy
To place by my head.

I don’t think I left him
Downstairs in the hall,
Or lost in the garden
Where the grass grows so tall.

I had him this morning
With me in the car,
I don’t think he fell out,
He can’t have gone far.

He’s not in the bathroom,
I did have a peep,
If I haven’t got Teddy
I can’t go to sleep.

I’ve searched in the kitchen
Where I know Teddy runs
When he’s looking for honey
Or sugary buns.

Will you please find my Teddy
And bring him to me,
I’m lonely without him
And he misses me.

Will you tell him it’s bedtime,
Mummy’s kissed me goodnight,
We said “God bless Daddy”
And turned out the light.

But I lie awake, waiting
Alone in the dark
And thinking of Teddy
With me in the park.

It’s cosy and warm
And I soon fall asleep,
I dream of green monsters
In blue oceans deep.

When I wake in the morning,
Beside me in bed
I find Teddy sleeping,
Just like Mummy said!

Helier lost his Teddy, and found it! April 1976

The Woodpecker

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Behind the house on a bright spring day
When the sun at last had come to stay,
A woodpecker tapped on a hollow tree
And sent secret messages down to me.

He tapped all the morning and then flew away,
What did he tell me? What did he say?
“The summer is coming, it won’t be too long!”
That was the gist of the woodpecker’s song.

19.2.77

Pictures from Holland

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One ragged scarecrow alone in a field
Waves to the train which is gathering speed.

Two long-billed storks perched on a rooftop
Stand on one leg and bask in the sun.

Three whitewashed windmills turn in the wind,
Pumping the water or grinding the corn.

Four painted barges in nose-to-tail line
Follow their leader along the canal.

Five white ponies in a buttercup field
Scamper away at the sight of the train.

Six mottled cows at the red stable door
Wait to be milked at the end of the day.

Seven bells chiming high in the steeple,
Telling the time to the people below.

Eight wooden clogs on eight pretty feet
Dance on the cobbles beside the canal.

Nine fishing boats tied up at the quay
And fishermen drying their nets in the sun.

Ten children of Holland cycling to school
Wait by the bridge for the train to go by.