A Small Dragon - Edendork P.S. Dunngannon, Co. Tyrone

Mr. Crosier's P5 class embraced this digital literacy project and the poem they had been studying in class. Written by Brian Patten, the poem's ember of longing is moved to child-like wonder with a need to test friendship and the confirmation of trust. A very contemporary theme for today's Northern Ireland where this was made.

A Small Dragon

I've found a small dragon in the woodshed.
Think it must have come from deep inside a forest
because it's damp and green and leaves
are still reflecting in it's eyes.

I fed it on many things, tried grass
the roots of stars, hazel-nut and dandelion,
but it stared up at me as if to say, I need
foods you can't provide.

It made a nest among the coal,
not unlike a birds but larger,
it is out of place here
and is most-times silent.

If you believed in it I would come
hurrying to your house to let you share this wonder,
but I want instead to see
if you yourself will pass this way.

Copyright
from Love Poems (Flamingo (Harper Collins), 1990), copyright © Brian Patten 1990.

Brian Patten's website: www.anps.co.uk/brian/index.html