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.