Protecting my Dad's favourite poem - Night Noises by Joan Mellings

Some things about the foreverness of the Internet freak me out.

I hate the idea that some future employer of Wild Man's would be able to Google him and read what I wrote when he was three. But every cloud has a silver lining and in the case of the Internet I think that the lining of the silver cloud of foreverness is that things can be protected.

When I was little we had a book. I have no idea what it was called but there was a poem in it that my Dad loved and used to read to us when we were going to sleep.

All of us can quote parts of the poem even 30 plus years later.

My Dad has searched and searched for the poem online and finally found a version of it in some archived Canadian school reader. He swears that is the only copy in existence.

Whether or not there are others, an archived school reader doesn't fill me with faith that my Dad's favourite poem will be preserved, so I thought I would share it with you and hope that my blog's foreverness can help protect it.

Night Noises by Joan Mellings

After I’m in bed,
And there isn’t any light,
I like to lie and listen
To the noises of the night.

The tap, tap, tap of branches
Upon a window-pane,
The rustle of the leaves in wind
And gentle fall of rain.

Cars that pass each minute,
A lone plane in the sky,
The clock that plays a merry tune
An hourly lullaby.

Cats and dogs and roosters,
I listen to them all,
Every noisy, croaking frog
Upon the garden wall.

All day long I’m happy
In the sunny golden light,
But I like to lie and listen
To the noises of the night.

Joan Mellings, if you ever read this I'm not trying to steal your copyright. I just want to keep your lovely poem safe.