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| Click here to find out more about Sally Gardner. |
It is the 10th anniversary of the award winning writer, Sally Gardner's first childrens book,Information on the children's history book, I, Coriander.
In a recent article on The Guardian's website, Sally was interviewed as part of the Dyslexia Awareness week about how she got through school with having Dyslexia.
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| Sally Gardner, Award Winning Childrens Author - With thanks to The Guardian |
Disobey Me, a poem by by Sally Gardner
They told me I was dyslexic
it didn’t describe me
belonged in the library
of words I can’t spell
no matter how many times they tell
you just try harder sound it out
simple when you think about
it. Stop giving me the third degree
don’t put me down
don’t make me fret
I can’t learn my alphabet
it doesn’t go in any logical order
the stress gives me attention deficit disorder
at school I wanted to go it alone
they told me that’s unwise
they called me unteacheable
I was unreachable
stuck in the classroom, broken by rules, by buttons and ties.
But I don’t like the little words they always disobey me
the does doses up and is higher than a dude should be
So they tested me
they corrected me
and found my results poor
and told me I wasn’t concentrating
they expected more.
I tried to get along
I never made the score
And I think about Chaucer in those freedom days
when no one found your spelling faulty for the extra Es and As
Mr Shakespeare I wonder would they let him write his plays?
Oh woe is me
might just be
graffti in a bog
And Hamlet the name
he called his prize-fighter dog
But I don’t like the little words they always disobey me
the doe doses dope and is higher than a do should be
You say that you’re a writer
but that’s absurd
how do you write
if you cannot spell the words?
listen, it’s not the way I spell
that makes me want to write
It’s the way I see the world
That makes me want to fight
I challenge you – see the words as I do
feel them sting your skin
the meaning often shocking
the way the nib goes in
to relish discombobulate not to moderate your passion
not to murder language in an artificial fashion
words are our servants
we are not their slaves
it matters not if we spell them wrong it matters what they say
But I don’t like the little words they always disobey me
the does doses dope and is higher than a dough should be.
it didn’t describe me
belonged in the library
of words I can’t spell
no matter how many times they tell
you just try harder sound it out
simple when you think about
it. Stop giving me the third degree
don’t put me down
don’t make me fret
I can’t learn my alphabet
it doesn’t go in any logical order
the stress gives me attention deficit disorder
at school I wanted to go it alone
they told me that’s unwise
they called me unteacheable
I was unreachable
stuck in the classroom, broken by rules, by buttons and ties.
But I don’t like the little words they always disobey me
the does doses up and is higher than a dude should be
So they tested me
they corrected me
and found my results poor
and told me I wasn’t concentrating
they expected more.
I tried to get along
I never made the score
And I think about Chaucer in those freedom days
when no one found your spelling faulty for the extra Es and As
Mr Shakespeare I wonder would they let him write his plays?
Oh woe is me
might just be
graffti in a bog
And Hamlet the name
he called his prize-fighter dog
But I don’t like the little words they always disobey me
the doe doses dope and is higher than a do should be
You say that you’re a writer
but that’s absurd
how do you write
if you cannot spell the words?
listen, it’s not the way I spell
that makes me want to write
It’s the way I see the world
That makes me want to fight
I challenge you – see the words as I do
feel them sting your skin
the meaning often shocking
the way the nib goes in
to relish discombobulate not to moderate your passion
not to murder language in an artificial fashion
words are our servants
we are not their slaves
it matters not if we spell them wrong it matters what they say
But I don’t like the little words they always disobey me
the does doses dope and is higher than a dough should be.