Terry Caffrey

What If…

Footballs had feelings
Penalty spots were square
Rattles weren’t noisy
What If…
Pitches were made of marzipan
Police horses were cardboard cut outs
Sprinklers sprayed confetti
and footballers rode bikes
What If…

Terry Caffrey is a writer and poet who has worked in 2,500 schools and 28 prisons. He was the North West’s first ‘author/reading champion’. He won this award because he makes words and language fun so that children and young people never stop reading. He’s worked with the Halle Orchestra in Manchester, the Citadel Theatre in St Helen’s, and Manchester City FC.

Terry will show you that poetry is alive – it isn’t just stuff written by dead people and weirdos. The rhythm and beat of rap is poetry, too, and it’s right up to date.

He’ll encourage you to put your ideas down ‘before they escape’. Then he’ll make you feel proud about creating something that is uniquely yours and didn’t exist until you put words on the page.

To get you started, here are some tips from Terry:

• Choose a topic, like the weather
• Get out and feel it, hear it, see it
• What’s it doing?
• How does it feel against your face and body?
• Think of it as a person – what game is it playing?
• Make it rhyme or not – it’s your poem so it can’t be wrong
• About 8–12 lines
• Have fun!

You can contact Terry Caffrey on terry.caffrey@googlemail.com – if you want to send him one of your poems he’ll be happy to look at it.