The Dirigible Balloon
Poetry for Children

Rooms

Listen to John read his poem ...
In my house there is:

My bedroom
with my bed.
I don’t remember
most of what goes on
in here.

The living room
though we live
in all the rooms
and the room
is not alive.

My parents’ bedroom
which has old and new photos
and pictures by me and Grandad.
It is a mini-museum
of how I came to be me.

The toilet
for toilet purposes.

The bathroom
my brain’s playground.
All I can hear is water
and the sound
of my own singing.

The kitchen
where things are made
to disappear
and then be made into
more of me.

I think that there’s another room
inside my head
where everything also lives
but it’s too small to hold them all
or so big I get lost.

About the Writer


John Newton Webb

John worked for years as a playwright, actor, and storyteller, especially in children's theatre. He has had poems published in a variety of magazines, and is looking for a publisher for his first children's novel. You can read some of his work, and occasional mini-essays on poetry at johnnewtonwebb.blogspot.com. He lives in Sapporo, Japan with his wife and two children and a motley crew of imagined characters.