Playing with poems - writing poetry for children

We present an extract from The Irish Writers Handbook 2025, edited by Ruth McKee, the essential guide to writing and getting published, with contributions from acclaimed authors and book industry professionals.

Described by author John Banville as 'an essential tool for all Irish writers', The Irish Writers Handbook 2025 focuses on the practicalities of the writing life. Whether you write fiction or non-fiction, illustrate books for young people or are an emerging poet, this book is your reliable guide. Featuring advice from the great and the good of the Irish book world such as Donal Ryan, Jan Carson, Claire Hennessy, Una Mannion, Nuala O'Connor, Kevin Power, Aoife Roantree, Kit de Waal and many more, and including brand new pieces from the likes of Jessica Traynor, Sarah Webb, Cristín Leach, Anne Tannam, and Gerard Beirne, readers can learn from the full spectrum of the Irish book industry’s experience.

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In the extract below, award-winning children's writer Lucinda Jacob breaks down the fine art of writing poetry for children...

Does It Have to Rhyme?

No, of course not! But this is the question I get asked more than anything else, from aspiring children's poets as well as children themselves. And what’s not to love about rhyme? It’s joyful, fun and, hand in hand with rhythm it sits with our very heartbeats. Well, badly handled rhyme is not to love, but more of that later.

Serious Fun

Snot and knickers? Grisly teachers? Bouncy, funny poems full of lavatorial humour will go down well with most children, but it is a particular phase they go through, and children are pretty quick to sense that poetry like this can be trying too hard to charm them. It’s my strong feeling that once the playful fun of poems featuring all things disgusting has been experienced, children quickly feel the condescension of writing that is trying too hard to get alongside them by saying something like, 'Nudge, nudge, let’s all agree your teacher is a horror.’ But, that said, write your poems according to your voice, sensibilities and feeling for fun!

My own inspiration comes not so much from sitting at my desk but from getting out and about, observing things and talking to people. We are blessed to be a nation of talkers, and many of my poems have come from the fabulous things random strangers have said to me. ‘Do they think that mermaids are going to come and read in it?’ This was a comment about the building of a new library which inspired my poem, ‘In the Library Beside the Sea’. ‘Marine Road—it’s the road of flying grannies.’ This absolute gift of a comment came from a man who caught my eye having just saved an older lady from being blown over on said road, and which became my poem ‘Marine Road on a Windy Day’.

Know Your Craft – and Keep Learning

I enjoy using all sorts of poetic forms and structures and I find that my preliminary notes will often suggest the form a poem will take. There might be rhymes in there that I can build on, or a phrase or line that is asking to be repeated through the poem, and if it needs to be free verse there may be elements such alliteration and assonance that will strengthen the writing and create pleasing repetition and pattern in the language. So, get to know your craft. If you are using rhyme, please, please make sure your poem scans and the rhythm works! Rhyme that doesn’t scan is very tricky to handle and while to do so may seem fun and childlike, if you are going to break a structure you must know that structure inside out or it may fall flat. Try every form, from cinquains and haiku to ballads, sonnets, free verse and everything in between. You may never use them but think of this practice as great exercise for your poetic muscles! There are lots of ‘how to’ books out there to help you. Try a few, you will like some more than others. Sign up for writing groups, workshops and master classes, even if they are for ‘adult’ poets. You will always gain something from them to enrich your writing. Something vital to note is that a poem that will delight a child, whether funny, serious, happy, sad or angry needs to be for a child and not from the point of view of an adult describing childhood.

How to Reach Your Audience and Readers

Public libraries can be your best friend, or at least the librarians and arts officers can be. Do use your library; it may sound obvious but get in there and see what is going on. Browse the shelves and borrow poetry books by poets you love and those you haven't even heard of, whether their work is intended for adults or children. Read, read, read and keep expanding those poetry muscles! Do sign up for library and arts newsletters and if you would like to work with children look out for calls for practitioners on their websites and social media. I appreciate that not all writers want to facilitate creative writing but doing so can be a great opportunity to read your poetry to your intended audience, to see how it is received by them, and to encourage the next generation of poets. And by encouraging actual children to read and write poetry with you, you will be creating readers! And it’s fun! I certainly find giving workshops to children one of the most invigorating things I do.

Watch: Sarah Webb and Lucinda Jacob talk I Am the Wind - An Post Irish Book of The Year 2023

Schools often look for writers to visit their classes, but you will most likely need to be Garda vetted and do make sure you are never left alone with children. Once you are published, look into joining the Writers in School Scheme which puts school visits on a formal footing and is a wonderfully supportive organisation.

Join Children's Books Ireland! This great organisation is for anyone who has an interest in children and books. I love to hear what other children’s writers are doing in any genre and years ago I volunteered to review books for their magazine, again exercising the writing muscles. Plus, it was in a queue for coffee at one of their conferences that I got chatting with a publisher who suggested I send her some of my poems and that was how I first got published.

We need more children's poets!

Publication?

There is no obvious path to publication for this ‘niche within a niche’ that is poetry written for children. For poetry written for adults, poets usually start by submitting to poetry journals, building a body of published work and, hopefully, working towards a pamphlet and first collection. But don’t let this lack of obvious route put you off. The good thing about most Irish children’s publishers is that they often will look at unsolicited work. But don’t just send a flurry of poems to them without checking first. Look at their publications, find out if they are interested in publishing poetry, and check if and when they are likely to look at new work, and follow their guidelines for submission. Keep an eye on their social media and websites as some will indicate that they will look at new proposals within a finite timeframe and you won’t want to miss that.

Be imaginative in looking for homes for your poems. Local papers are often looking for copy with a local flavour and many produce pages aimed at children, particularly coming up to school breaks, holidays and festivals. With the right timing a short article including a poem and how you came to write it, and with a fun writing activity to go with it, could be just what a busy copy editor is looking for.

And good luck! We are a nation rightly known worldwide for the richness of our poetry written for adults. I would love to see this richness (and volume!) reflected in the poetry we write and publish for children. We need more children’s poets!

The Irish Writers Handbook 2025 is published by Wordwell - find out more here.