Foreword

You know those days when spring has sprung and you can feel the sun on your skin?

Let’s say you are down at the creek, there’s a buzz in the air, the smell of moss and damp mushrooms … So you take off your shoes and wade through the soft, fleshy soursobs to the water’s edge.

The frogs are beep-booping—until you tread on a stick! So you drop a plastic bag into the stream to catch little black commas, some with legs. Well, you might think you’re just at the park or down by the river, but you’re actually living inside a poem.

The poets in Tadpoles in the Torrens have dipped their imaginations into the everyday stream of life. Their poems are alive and kicking. Some will make you squirm like a worm, others will have you biting fingernails or laughing out loud. These are poems to read at night, after bedtime, with a torch—poems to read aloud and to share with friends—poems about your place, my place, our Aussie backyard.

Some rhyme, others don’t, but all of these poems sparkle. I hope Tadpoles in the Torrens will inspire you to write a poem of your own. It really is easy. Poems can be about anything. Go on, have a dip and see what words you catch!

Jude Aquilina