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DaniGraceWrites

@danigracewrites.bsky.social

Enchanting Treats

#Dough of anticipation
Stacks up imaginations
With holiday creations—
Inside yummy pies,
Sugar cookie sheets wide,
and breads on the rise before hungry eyes
Spying ovens glow &
Sprinkles of sugary snow
Enough to make Santa go "Ho, ho, ho whoa!"

@thetoypress.bsky.social
#kidlit

December 1, 2025 at 4:52 PM

The Toy Press 🍩🦜🍑🌻🪐🛼

@thetoypress.bsky.social

Happy 1st December! Here is your #wordoftheweek!

#writingcommunity #writingforchildren #writingprompt #poetryforkids #poetryforchildren #poetrycommunity

December 1, 2025 at 8:27 AM

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Mark Bird

@dreambeastpoems.bsky.social

Inspired by the children I teach - making sense of the world with their glorious imaginations #wordprompt #imagination #poems4kids #watercycle #water #poemsforkids

November 26, 2025 at 8:36 PM

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Ian Brownlie

@ianbrownlie.bsky.social

Lots of kinds of #Cycle to choose from for @thetoypress.bsky.social's #WordOfTheWeek. So I didn't.

#WritingCommunity #WritingForChildren #PoetryCommunity #PoetryForKids #KidLit #WordPrompt

The Life Cycle of a Poem

Motorcycle
Riding fast
Unicycle
Clown flies past

Spin cycle
Wash with haste
Recycle
Eco waste

Water cycle
Land, air, sea
News cycle
Update me!

Batcycle
Comic fun
Broken cycle
My job’s done

November 24, 2025 at 4:41 PM

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Shaun Jex

@shaunjexauthor.bsky.social

Thanks to the @thetoypress.bsky.social for a brand-new #wordoftheweek. This week, the word is "cycle," and it got me to wondering...

#poetry #poetrycommunity #kidlit

The Ulster Cycle

At home, I learned that tricycles have not two wheels but three
I heard the explanation, and it all made sense to me
And so a unicycle uses just one wheel, not two
But what exactly does the stinking Ulster Cycle do?

Poem © Shaun Jex

November 24, 2025 at 3:33 PM

The Toy Press 🍩🦜🍑🌻🪐🛼

@thetoypress.bsky.social

Hello, here is your #wordoftheweek!

#wordprompt #writingprompt #writingcommunity #poetrycommunity #poetryforchildren #poetryforkids

November 24, 2025 at 7:55 AM

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Kay Medway

@kaymedway.bsky.social

#wordoftheweek #poetry #poem

Ship of Heather and Rose
by Kay Medway

A spray of thin stems of white heather flowers,
luckiest and already with a rose,
in Trafalgar Square from a flower seller
to us on a bench.

A dark burgundy rose,
the colour of her bonnet, her dress,
her basket abundant,
her quick movements with a smile for us.

With coins in her palm she walks away,
leaving flowers in our hands,
suited to our sadness,
to set off in a ship on the fountain.

The ship we weave for flowers will bob in fountain water,
travelling with rose and heather,
bringing back wishes proved real
in November sunlight.

November 17, 2025 at 7:37 PM

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Shaun Jex

@shaunjexauthor.bsky.social

Another wonderful #wordoftheweek from @thetoypress.bsky.social . This one sent me a a bit of a voyage!

#kidlit #poetry #poetrycommunity #poetryforchildren

Put To Sea

The maple leaves sail on the breeze
Like ships that ride a gentle wave
Far from their home up in the trees
The maple leaves sail on the breeze
Wherever the West Wind decrees
They’ll go like sailors bold and brave
The maple leaves sail on the breeze
Like ships that ride a gentle wave

© Shaun Jex

November 17, 2025 at 4:06 PM

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John Dredge

@johndredge.bsky.social

@thetoypress.bsky.social

November 17, 2025 at 3:11 PM

The Toy Press 🍩🦜🍑🌻🪐🛼

@thetoypress.bsky.social

Hello, here is your #wordoftheweek!
(Amended slightly due to repetition)

#writingcommunity #writingforchildren #writingprompt #poetryforkids #poetrycommunity #poetryforchildren
#illustrationcommunity #illustrationprompt #kidlit

November 17, 2025 at 12:03 PM

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Kay Medway

@kaymedway.bsky.social

#wordoftheweek #poetry #poem

Take notice especially of the tapered points on the tips of garden grass.
They are green and able to recompose, spring back again,
even if their place is on the path
that sings for you to go out and walk among
animal prints and tracks.

Ask outside what it hears:
insects, weather, sheep, games we still or sometimes play,
or a villager on his daily dusk wander.

Record what the stems listen to.
Track down a favourite song of cup-shaped petals
hums, hymns, riffs, or tunes. Put it in a poem.

Take any key of a keyboard,
a drum sound from a button of special effects if you wish.
Ask about the children
who ask to learn to play when they visit their grandparents.

Observe how they fix and turn the baubles,
so they are not left in a shatter
when they decorate the tree.
by Kay Medway

November 16, 2025 at 11:00 PM

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Ian Brownlie

@ianbrownlie.bsky.social

Time to get back on #track with @thetoypress.bsky.social's #WordOfTheWeek. Or is it?

#WritingCommunity #WritingForChildren #PoetryCommunity #PoetryForKids #KidLit #WordPrompt

Do You Really Want to Get Back on Track?

Like a train tied to stations,
in the same old locations,
always on fixed durations,
with no chance of vacation.
Is there not some temptation
to resist this stagnation?

Perhaps instead take advantage
of coming off the rails.
Glide over the countryside,
towards a port.
Chug up to a ferry, and take a trip overseas.
Join a traffic jam and blare your superior train horn,
then break free and pick up speed.
Do the locomotive
in a town you don't know the name of.
Head deep underground.
Take flight, if you can,
or simply jump up and feel the air step aside as you rise.

And then, one day, return to your rails.
Or don't.

November 11, 2025 at 10:02 AM

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Shaun Jex

@shaunjexauthor.bsky.social

Thanks to @thetoypress.bsky.social for another #wordoftheweek

This week's poem is based on actual events.

You know...more or less.

#poetry #poetrycommunity #kidlit #poetryforkids #writingcommunity

Why Sasquatch Split Town

Last night I saw ol’ Sasquatch
Down by the railroad track
He told me, “I’m leaving town
And won’t be coming back
‘Round here they call me Bigfoot
Though I try to explain
My foot size is quite normal
And my first name is Wayne…”

© Shaun Jex

November 10, 2025 at 8:35 PM

The Toy Press 🍩🦜🍑🌻🪐🛼

@thetoypress.bsky.social

Thank you for all your supportive comments on our post yesterday.

Here is your #wordoftheweek!

#writingcommunity #writingforchildren #writingprompt #poetryforkids #poetryforchildren #poetrycommunity

November 10, 2025 at 8:39 AM

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Stephen Connor

@sconnor7.bsky.social

Late poem for @thetoypress.bsky.social prompt, written from the experience of putting little ones to bed on Bonfire Night.

November 9, 2025 at 7:34 PM

The Toy Press 🍩🦜🍑🌻🪐🛼

@thetoypress.bsky.social

We would usually have opened up submissions again by now, but we are taking a pause to think about what's next.

For the past few editions, we haven't recouped all of our costs and this is largely down to the increasing expense of sending out contributor copies...