We had a really fun day at Riverside, and some of the pupils who were there now have their own poetry blog.
Collectively we decided to write our group poem about a strange family:
The Monster Family
When Medusa and Count Dracula were married,
he loved her sly dangerous elegance;
she couldn’t resist him: so tall and manipulative.
So they made their vows and took up residence
in Dracula’s dark cobwebby castle.
Their first pet was Percy the purple hedgehog
in his cute kitchen cupboard, his feeding bowl
full of dead people’s noses. For a lawnmower
they had a two-headed ginger sheep called Spice.
At night-time he slept on the bed, always keeping
one head awake in case Dracula got thirsty.
Their first born son was the Bogeyman.
As a teen he was addicted to The Monster Book.
He loved playing pranks on everyone.
Next they had Cyclops, a spoilt brat
because of his one eye. His bed is a cot of bone.
The third child is the worst of all, a smelly
red troll who sucks all of her six thumbs.
She screams all day long and sprouts orange horns
when she’s angry.
Medusa’s brother turned people to statues
and he looked like a worm, so Aunti Gemma
acidentally ate him. Oh well.
Grandfather Time steals people’s youth
to keep himself young forever.
So when he comes to stay, Dracula
sends the kids outside to play.
Medusa is the breadwinner: she’s a natural assassin.
They all live happily together, just like your family.
Angela Topping 
Angela,
Nice to see a sense of family values in this horribly funny post-Dahl poem!
Was this a poetry workshop or a group therapy session? Come to think of it, maybe there are similarities!
Purple hedgehogs feeding on dead people’s noses, hummm…
Paul
Kids love ghoulishness! Their ideas, my structure.