In this episode I compare two poems in the comic/surreal tradition of warning poems for children, one by Hilaire Belloc and one by Tim Burton. For more information about Upper Street's courses and classes, visit https://www.upper-street-madrid.com/

Latest episode of Upper Street Madrid Podcast. For more information about Upper Street's courses and classes, visit www.upper-street-madrid.com

Haiku in English - including Kerouac, Ginsberg, Hass and John Cooper Clark. For more information about Upper Street's courses and classes, visit www.upper-street-madrid.com

Words can mean different things depending on how they are heard, seen or read. Norman Hunter, Lewis Carroll, Shakespeare and TS Eliot provide some examples.

TO ANY READER

As from the house your mother sees

You playing round the garden trees,

So you may see, if you will look

Through the windows of this book,

Another child, far, far away,

And in another garden, play.

But do not think you can at all,

By knocking on the window, call

That child to hear you. He intent

Is all on his play-business bent.

He does not hear; he will not look,

Nor yet be lured out of this book.

For, long ago, the truth to say,

He has grown up and gone away,

And it is but a child of air

That lingers in the garden there.

Some thoughts on the relationship poetry and song and a look at how and why expressions like goody-goody, topsy-turvy and hanky-panky are used.

In this week's podcast I'll talk about a short story by Francisco Jimenez, a Mexican American writer. The story is set in the early 1950's and describes the life of a family moving from farm to farm for work in the USA. I'll also be looking at the meanings of the word 'spell.'

An Alphabet refrain and a poem by Julia Alvarez