Two poems for Phantom National Poetry Day 2021 in Aotearoa/ New Zealand

August 27, 2021
Two cheerful poems for a nation in lock-down trying to celebrate our National Poetry Day

National Poetry Day: we like it. I was going to walk around town with a fellow poet (Margaret Austin) giving poems to unsuspecting pedestrians. That was fun last year. But this year on Phantom National Poetry Day, Aotearoa/ New Zealand is in lock-down. (Plus it’s raining, as it happens.) So I picked a couple of poems cheerful poems that seem appropriate and am hereby posting them online. One is about the wonderful fact that you and I are not dead. The other is about Breath Control — advice from a 5-year-old life coach.

I’m just one of hundreds, perhaps thousands of poets here in New Zealand. Maybe you are also a poet. Please share any that seem right for a nation in lock-down for this horrible pandemic.

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8 thoughts on “Two poems for Phantom National Poetry Day 2021 in Aotearoa/ New Zealand”

  1. judibwriting says:
    August 27, 2021 at 1:15 pm

    Thank you for your sharing.- great Life Coach you have there in Elsie Grace. I rarely write poems that rhyme but this popped out and is short and maybe sweet.

    By the Light 12/21

    By the light of our sun, the stars, and the moon
    The universe is our cocoon

    Our bodies tethered to the earth
    Our spirits grow in this new birth

    We dissolve, reform, and live to die
    Invisible wings unfurl and fly

    Judi Bachrach

  2. Mamalava says:
    August 28, 2021 at 12:59 am

    Great video! Great poems! Thank you for sharing 😀

    1. Rachel McAlpine says:
      August 28, 2021 at 6:34 am

      Thank you!

  3. Peter's pondering says:
    August 28, 2021 at 1:22 am

    Looking forward to better times, and back to magical times, here is mine posted last night:

    I love your little fingers and I love your little toes

    I love your dimpled chin and your little button nose

    I even love your whimpering and all your wild kerfuffles

    And probably the best of all I love your snores and snuffles

    But p’raps there’s one or two things that annoy me all to hell

    I hate it when you vomit ‘cause I cannot stand the smell

    There’s one thing that would really make me very very happy

    And that’s the day you learn to live without that dreadful nappy!

    1. Rachel McAlpine says:
      August 28, 2021 at 11:51 am

      It’s a gorgeous poem and exactly what we need in lockdown too!

      1. Peter's pondering says:
        August 28, 2021 at 9:48 pm

        Thank you Rachel.

  4. Liz Melchior says:
    August 29, 2021 at 10:26 am

    Thanks Rachel we listened to this in the car while waiting to be released after getting out second covid jab! So entertaining and highly relevant!!! ♥️

    1. Rachel McAlpine says:
      August 29, 2021 at 12:49 pm

      Nice timing. Jab #2!! Awesome. Mine is on Wednesday. So far so good.

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