Resource 4: A praise poem
Pupil use
My Drum by Francis Faller
It beats
patiently
like water
dripping
on
a gutter
pipe
or proudly
as the pounding of the sea.
My drum. My drum.
It summons love.
It hammers anger out.
It calls for freedom.
It never stops
even when nobody
hears my drum
but me.
My drum greets
everything
that passes by:
the rising sun
the rain battering
the wind that blows
a family of cranes
home across the sky.
It greets the cricket
chirping out its glee.
It greets the workers
whose drills and picks
are digging holes
monotonously.
I follow it
into laughter
I lead it through
throbbing pain.
It’s a sparrow pecking seed
it’s a stick along the fence
it’s a rapid fire gun.
My drum. My drum.
Nervously it beats
a welcome
just for you.
Will you hear it
with delight?
Will you run away in fright?
A drum is only
skin and wood
so will you come?
You should.
You should.
My little drum
was yesterday so weak.
Today it’s beating
Strong.
Surely it wasn’t stretched
across this world
to play for nothing.
Though it never
gets reply
I think
I could not live
if the song
of my drum
should die.
Original source: My Drum – Meyerowitz, B., Copans, J. & Welch, T. (compilers)
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Resource 3: Verb tense charts
