Michael Rosen's A to Z

Extract

Spellbound

Ride with me
On this lyrical roller coaster
My syllable slices
Will feed your hunger
As they pop up and down
Like a Jamaican toaster

Chilling in my simile cocoon
Just biding my time
The moment is perfect
Let’s get ready to rhyme

Watch your step
As my Webb is spun
Drop your baggage at check in
The lighter you travel
The more fun

Submerge yourself, in this
Lip-hop metaphor
Resistance is futile,
As I hold the key to the door

I leave you tongue-tied like Houdini
You’ll never escape my barrel of words
Your belly expands with laughter
As you guzzle on my contagious verbs

My acid adjectives
Hack deep into your heart
Reprogramming your software
Be afraid!
Be very afraid
For this is just the start

You’ll be my reluctant patient
And I’ll play the over enthusiastic nurse
Drip feeding rhythm and rhyme
Through my life saving verse

Bringing forth gifts of expression
With the knowledge of 3 wise men
Verbalizm is the one Like Nio
Now five plus four equals ten

Verbalizm is the ultimate fighter
A lion that can’t be tamed
A fusion of text and colour
This canvas is too big to be framed

There’ll be no light limericks
This operation is far too serious for that
Lights, camera, action!
Cut! . . .
Now that’s what I call a Rap!

Ad-libbing like a master chef
Preparing food, to serenade the nose
One whiff of this concoction
Leaves you spellbound, by my Moorish prose

Adisa

The Soldiers Came

The soldiers came
and dropped their bombs.
The soldiers didn’t take long
to bring the forest down.

With the forest gone
the birds are gone.
With the birds gone
who will sing their song?

But the soldiers forgot
to take the forest
out of the people’s hearts.
The soldiers forgot
to take the birds
out of the people’s dreams.
And in the people’s dreams
the birds still sing their song.

Now the children
are planting seedlings
to help the forest grow again.
They eat a simple meal of soft rice
wrapped in banana leaf.
And the land welcomes their smiling
like a shower of rain.

John Agard