Sue’s poems in anthologies for children

I am delighted that my poem Perseids appears in Spaced Out, a brilliant new collection of space poems edited by Brian Moses and James Carter (published May 2019 by Bloomsbury). Perseids was inspired by watching a perseid shower in the dark August night skies over our allotment. It was such a fun poem to write. As I wrote the first draft words seemed to set alight across the page and ideas came at me from so many different angles.

I also have other poems in anthologies for children. For example, Coast Train and Yellow Car, Yellow Car both appear in Are We Nearly There Yet? an anthology of holiday poems chosen by Brian Moses (Macmillan). Last Suppers is in Criminal Records edited by Anne Harvey (Puffin). Hiding Places was published in I Remember, I Remember edited by Brian Moses (Macmillan).

None of these poems were written specifically for children. I firmly believe that if a poem works it can work for any age of reader. They may find different things in it as they read and reread it at different ages but that doesn’t matter.What’s important is that language, spaces on the page, sounds or images strike a chord and make the reader want to think about, laugh at, enjoy or remember what they have just read.