The Common Cormorant

By Christopher Isherwood

The common cormorant or shag

Lays eggs inside a paper bag.

The reason you will see no doubt

It is to keep the lightning out.

But what these unobservant birds

Have never noticed is that herds

Of wandering bears may come with buns

And steal the bags to hold the crumbs.

 

More children’s poems in The Oxford Book of Children’s Poetry selected by Michael Harrison & Christopher Stuart- Clark. From classic favourites to vibrant new discoveries; from hilarious limericks to unforgettable narrative poems; from the silly to the serious and from the everyday to the extraordinary: this wonderful collection has every kind of poem. Here you will find more than 250 poems from more than 130 poets, including Ted Hughes, Michael Rosen, Ogden Nash, Rudyard Kipling, Carol Ann Duffy, Charles Causley, Benjamin Zephaniah, and Hilaire Belloc, as well, of course, as many anonymous and traditional poems.