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.

Taken from: My Drum – Meyerowitz, B., Copans, J. & Welch, T. (

Resource 3: Verb tense charts

Resource 5: Verbs and adverbs in the poem