Author: Kenn Nesbitt

Sometimes the silliest ideas make for the funniest poems. This one started with a simple question: What if someone was really, really good at burping? I mean unbelievably good. That idea made me laugh, so I knew I had to run with it. The result is a poem that plays with repetition, exaggeration, and a little bit of mischief—just the kind of humor that makes poetry extra fun. I hope you enjoy meeting one of the world’s most talented burpers… even if not everyone in her family appreciates her skills. This is…

Bernadette the Burper

Bernadette the burper
is the greatest in the land.
She so adept at burping
she can do it on command.

There’s never been a burper
quite as skilled as Bernadette.
She’ll burp the Happy Birthday song,
and then the alphabet.

She’ll burp the periodic table
and the fifty states.
She’ll burp the works of Shakespeare,
Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Yeats.

But every time she burps a burp
it drives her father wild.
He says they’re inappropriate
and unfit for a child.

He says she shouldn’t ever burp.
He tells her that it’s rude.
He says that burping’s impolite,
disgusting, gross, and crude.

So Bernadette agreed to stop
and held them in all day.
Her father changed his mind
when they came out the other way.

— Kenn Nesbitt

Welcome to Poetry4kids. I’m Kenn Nesbitt.

Have you ever found something unexpected—a hidden passage, a strange map, or a place no one else seemed to know about? Did you then keep it a secret too, or was it too good not to share?

This poem is all about discovering a secret place and exploring the unknown. It also uses repetition to build a rhythm and to heighten the sense of mystery. As you read it, see if you can feel the excitement of the narrator’s journey and maybe imagine where your own secret passageway might be hiding and where it might lead. This is…

I Found a Secret Passageway

I found a secret passageway
behind a secret door,
inside a secret closet that
I’d never seen before.

I tiptoed through that secret door
and down that secret hall
to find a secret room behind
a secret sliding wall.

And in that secret room there sat
a secret pirate’s chest
that held a secret map that led me
on a secret quest.

I traveled down the secret path
upon that secret map,
but tripped a secret switch and fell
inside a secret trap.

I felt around that secret trap
and grabbed a secret latch
that turned a secret handle
and unlocked a secret hatch.

A secret tunnel took me through
a secret catacomb,
then up a secret stairway where
I found myself back home.

I might have found some secret gold
beyond that secret door…
I’d tell you, but it wouldn’t
be a secret anymore.

— Kenn Nesbitt

Welcome to Poetry4kids. I’m Kenn Nesbitt

I thought of the idea for this poem while I was out on a brisk walk one day, feeling unusually full of energy. That got me thinking about how some kids just seem to have endless energy—always moving, always playing, always going. I began imagining what it would be like to be one of those kids, and from there the idea for “Hyper Nate” was born.

This poem is all about motion and excitement and the joy of being active. It has a bouncy rhythm and lots of extra rhymes to match the character’s boundless energy, and of course I had to add a little twist at the end. I hope you have just as much fun listening to it as I did writing it! This is…

Hyper Nate

My name is Nate. My normal state
is one of being hyper.
I’ve been a wild and active child
since I was in a diaper.

You’d be surprised how energized
a kid like me can be.
It’s tons of fun to run and run.
I’m filled with energy.

I’m called “live wire,” and “ball of fire,”
and “human dynamo.”
I love to skip and dash and zip.
I go, go, go, go, go!

I charge and chase and rush and race
until my hyper state
gets so extreme I lose my steam,
and then I hibernate.

— Kenn Nesbitt

Welcome to Poetry4kids. I’m Kenn Nesbitt.

I’ve always enjoyed writing poems about characters who are a little… well… less than excellent at what they do. There’s something especially funny about someone who tries their best but still manages to get everything hilariously wrong. Over the years, I’ve written about a pirate who’s never seen the sea, a scientist who searches for things that don’t exist, an old west bank robber who always fumbles the loot, and many more kooky characters.

This time, I thought it would be fun to take on the classic mystery genre, but with a detective who isn’t exactly solving any mysteries. This is her story and I hope you enjoy it!

Annette the Detective

Annette the Detective is bad at detecting.
She’s crummy at hunting for clues and inspecting.
She can’t catch the bad guys or solve any cases
by following footprints or studying faces.

She doesn’t spot obvious, telltale signs.
She can’t point out patterns or notice designs.
She has no suspicions, not even a hunch.
She’s slow on the uptake (except for her lunch).

She’s bad with disguises, like costumes and masks.
She messes up even the easiest tasks.
She bungled the case of the neighbor’s lost cat.
(The cat was asleep in her Sherlock Holmes hat.)

The criminals cheer when Annette’s on the case.
They know she won’t catch them or even give chase.
If you need a crime solved, it’s better if you
don’t work with Annette—she does not have a clue.

— Kenn Nesbitt