The Dirigible Balloon
Poetry for Children

Shell

Listen to Paula reading her poem ...
I found you,
half-hidden,
on the beach.
Buried in sand
no wave could reach.
I turned you over,
inspected your twists.
Traced your spirals,
curled you up in my fist.
Inside: smooth and pale,
fragile and pearly
as a fingernail.
A vacant bauble –
a home no more.
My very own piece
of the ocean floor.
I found you,
empty.
But you spoke to me:
a rushing whooshing
song of the sea.
I found you,
abandoned on the sand.
I’ll keep you.
A shoreline treasure
in the palm of my hand.

About the Writer


Paula Thompson

Paula wrote her first story aged seven on her mum’s old typewriter - and has been writing ever since. As a newspaper journalist she has written for a variety of publications, but her true passion is creating poems and stories for children (you might have seen some of them in The Caterpillar magazine). She recently graduated with distinction from The University of Winchester’s MA in Writing for Children and is very excited to take flight on The Dirigible Balloon!