ANIMALS
Bird in the classroom, Colin Thiele
The bat, Theodore Roethke
The donkey, G. K. Chesterton
The blind men and the elephant, John Godfrey
SaxeTortoise, David Speechley
Circus, Margaret Stanley-Wrench
The tyger, William Blake
The killer, Judith Wright
A POET'S LIFE: Judith Wright (1915-2000)
CELEBRATIONS
Christmas at the orphanage, Bill Knott
Santa Claus, A.B. (Banjo) Paterson
I celebrate Hanukkah, Anonymous
The Great Feast, Reece (aged 10)
New Year's watch, Su Shi
Chinese New Year, Anonymous
Corroboree, Oodgeroo of the tribe Noonuccal
The wedding, Mal Foster
haiku - malay village wedding, john tiong chunghoo
Halloween, Mac Hammond
CITY LIFE
City jungle, Pie Corbett Outer suburbs, John Manifold
Social security, Terence Winch
Letter from Lilliput, John Paisley
In the new landscape, Bruce Dawe
A POET'S LIFE: Bruce Dawe (1930-)
COMPUTERS and TECHNOLOGY
Abort, retry, ignore? Anonymous
Cyber space, Moya Levy and Sue Flaherty
Cyber me, Brian Routh
COUNTRY LIFE
The shearer's wife, Louis Esson
Country towns, Kenneth Slessor
Elegy written in a country church-yard,Thomas Gray
Past carin', Henry Lawson
A POET'S LIFE: Henry Lawson (1867-1922)
DEATH
Do not stand at my grave and weep, Mary Frye
Remember, Christina Rossetti
Death of a whale, John Blight
For Sadako, Ross Clark
Because I could not stop for Death, EmilyDickenson
The death of a cat, Anthony Thompson
O Captain! My Captain! Walt Whitman
Death is a fisherman, Benjamin Franklin
Do not go gentle into that good night, Dylan Thomas
A POET'S LIFE: Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)
DISABILITY
My son (for Donovan), Jim Bouder
I asked the little boy who cannot see, Anonymous
The afflicted, Robert W. Service
The quiet music of the deaf, Maureen Emily Orr
Disabled, Wilfred Owen
A POET'S LIFE: Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)
ENVIRONMENT
Homework, Allen Ginsberg
Fate's tools, Geoffrey Lungren
Prayer to protect water, Claudia L'Amoreaux
Prayer for the white man, Traditional Native American Indian
Tewa song, Traditional Native American Indian
FAITH
Holy Dan, Anonymous
The weaver, Anonymous
Long long ago, Anonymous
In the name of God, the Compassionate, the
Merciful,Qur'an - 24:35 - Al 'Nuur - the Light
Pied beauty, Gerard Manley Hopkins
A POET'S LIFE: Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)
FANTASY and THE SUPERNATURAL
La belle dame sans merci, John Keats
The lady of Shalott, Alfred Lord Tennyson
The dead, Susan Mitchell
Amaze, Adelaide Crapsey
November night, Adelaide Crapsey
The spider and the ghost of the fly, Vachel Lindsay
The raven, Edgar Allan Poe
The pied piper of Hamelin, Robert Browning
FRIENDSHIP
Moving on, A.B. 'Banjo' Paterson
My friend, Jeffrey Mattingley
She had more friends, Joanne Burns
Taking leave of a friend, Li Po
My friend must be a bird, Emily Dickinson
A POET'S LIFE: Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
HEALTH
The mother's son, Rudyard Kipling
The dilemmas of AIDS, James Sykes
Song of the decanter, Anonymous
Common cold, Ogden Nash
A POET'S LIFE: Ogden Nash (1902-1971)
HUMOUR
A bush Christening, A. B. 'Banjo' Paterson
The young girl in the choir, Anonymous
Numbers, Mary Cornish
Johnny Sands, Anonymous
The walrus and the carpenter, Lewis Carroll
A POET'S LIFE: Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)
INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS
Manikurdorrk / Brolga, Jack Riala
Terra nullius, Philip Rush
Bora ring, Judith Wright
Ballad of the totems, Oodgeroo of the tribe Noonuccal
A POET'S LIFE: Oodgeroo of the tribe Noonuccal (1920-1993)
LIFE
Leisure, W.H. Davies
Viewing time, E.V. Milner
Slow dance, Anonymous
Do not seek too much fame, Anonymous
Dreams, Langston Hughes
Ozymandias, Percy Bysshe Shelley
If, Rudyard Kipling
The world's need, Ella Wheeler Wilcox
To put the world right in order, Confucius
The seven deadly sins, Mathatma Gandhi
LOVE
Dover Beach, Matthew Arnold
Annabel Lee, Edgar Allan Poe
'How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.',Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Comparisons, Christina Rossetti
Remembrance, Emily Bronte
Thy heart, Anonymous
She walks in beauty, Lord Byron
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun,William Shakespeare
A POET'S LIFE: William Shakespeare(1564-1616)
MACHINES and WORK
Portrait of a machine, Louis Untermeyer
Sewing machine, Gwen Dunn
Night journey, S.Matthewman
Cleaning ladies, Kit Wright
MUSIC and DANCE
Narnian Suite, C. S. Lewis
The bells, Edgar Allen Poe
Tarantella, Hilaire Belloc
At the beating of a drum, Henry Lawson
Much like, John Malone
NATURE
Nothing gold can stay, Robert Frost
Willow, Clive Sansom
Sultry night, Robert Gray
High water, Apisai Enos
Daffodils, William Wordsworth
The golden bird, Rex Ingamells
A POET'S LIFE: William Wordsworth(1770-1850)
PEOPLE
Emporium, T.F. Kline
The yawn, Paul Blackburn
Ambition, Morris Bishop
The people upstairs, Ogden Nash
Being nobody, Karen Crawford
Unknown citizen, W.H. Auden
PETS
Gilbert, John Malone
Biscuit, Jane Kenyon
The dog lovers, Spike Milligan
The acrocat, Philip Rush
POETRY
Shallow poem, Gerda Mayer
Brevity, Judith Wright
Haiku, Roger McGough
According to my mood, Benjamin Zephaniah
PREJUDICE
The emigration game - Winter 1938/39, Gerda Mayer
Color-blind, Floyd Hildebrand
Children's rhymes, Langston Hughes
First they came for the Jews, (attributed to) Pastor Martin Niemoller
Fat is not a fairy tale, Jane Yolen
RELATIONSHIPS
May the road rise up to meet you, traditional Gaelic blessing
Wheels, Jim Daniels
The White Rabbit's verses, Lewis Carroll
Two little shadows, Anonymous
Goodnight Dad, see you in the mornin', Martyn Herbert & Herberte Jordan
After death, Christina Rossetti
A POET'S LIFE: Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)
SCHOOL
Kidnapped, Ruperake Petaia
I hear, Berlie Doherty
Last lesson of the afternoon, D.H.LawrenceSEA
At Roaring Beach, Margaret Scott
A surfer's prayer, Anonymous
Skin diver, Thomas Shapcott
Sea fever, John Masefield
SOCIAL ISSUES
I'll tell you what you wanderers, Henry Lawson
A 'kinder, gentler nation', Rich Hanson
Holy Thursday, William Blake
Faces in the street, Henry Lawson
SPORT
The surfer, Judith Wright
At the match, Harry's monologue, Peter Terson
Confessions of a born spectator, Ogden Nash
Civilities, Thomas Whitbread
Swimming lesson, Gregory Harrison
TIME
Time, My Ngan Duong
Days, Vicki Feaver
TRAGEDY and DISASTER
Out, out, Robert Frost
The wreck of the Hesperus, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The song of the wreck, Charles Dickens
House on fire, Peter Murphy
Fire and ice, Robert Frost
Fifteen million plastic bags, Adrian Mitchell
Query, E. Hamilton
A POET'S LIFE: Robert Frost (1874-1963)
WAR
Hum Bom! Allen Ginsberg
The farmer remembers the Somme, Vance
Palmer
Suicide in the trenches , Siegfried Sasson
Survivors, Siegfried Sasson
The dug-out, Siegfried Sassoon
Ballad of a peace marcher, Anonymous
Soldiers who wish to be a hero, Anonymous
Conscientious objector, Edna St Vincent Millay
Essential Serbo-Croat, Ken Smith
Beach burial, Kenneth Slessor
A POET'S LIFE: Kenneth Slessor (1901-1971)
WEATHER and SEASONS
The fog, F.R. McCreary
What is . . .the sun? Wes Magee
from A song of rain, C. J. Dennis
The new house, Edward Thomas
Lightning, Anonymous
Four haiku, Matsuo Basho (tr. by Geoffrey Bownas and Anthony Thwaite)
Summer full moon, James Kirkup
A POET'S LIFE: Basho (1644-1694)
WOMEN
Mr Don't Scratch My Rolex, Lisa Bellear
Why Dorothy Wordsworth is not as famous as her brother, Lynn Peters
In the park, Gwen Harwood
Slow children at play, Cecilia Woloch
A POET'S LIFE: Gwen Harwood (1920-1995)
YOUNG PEOPLE
Our other sister (for Ellen), Jeffrey Harrison
Bike ride with older boys, Laura Kasischke
A little boy's dream, Katherine Mansfield
To a daughter leaving home, Linda Pastan
Children's song, R.S.Thomas
Piano, D. H. Lawrence
In the well, Andrew Hudgins
Song, Eamon Grennan
How to change a frog into a prince, Anna Denise
The death of Santa Claus, Charles Webb
First kiss, Joan Poulson
To an athlete dying young, A. E. Housman