Poems With Lois Letchford: I Made a Mechanical Dragon

3 May 2021 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:09

In this YouTube video, Lois Letchford—author of Reversed: A Memoir and self‑described "literacy problem solver"—introduces herself and then reads her poem "I Made a Mechanical Dragon" from the collection The Dragons Are Singing Tonight. The poem describes the creation of a whimsical, improvised mechanical dragon built from discarded household items such as bottle tops, clocks, socks, hangers, cardboard, plastic, doorknobs, cables, corks, spools, balloons, spoons, shovels, and forks. She details the dragon’s odd appearance—irregular wheels, clattering, creaking, rattling, squeaking, and squealing when it tips over—and its stubborn, uncooperative behavior, repeatedly bumping into walls and falling despite her attempts to control it. The reading ends with a brief thank‑you and a standard YouTube call‑to‑action encouraging viewers to like, subscribe, enable notifications, and share the video.

Chapters

Hello, I'm Lois Letchford, author of the book Reversed: A Memoir and a literacy problem solver sharing poetry for all. And this one's I Made a Mechanical Dragon from The Dragons Are Singing Tonight. I made a mechanical dragon of bottle tops, hinges, and strings, of thrown-away clocks and unmendable socks, of hangers and worn inner springs, I built it of cardboard and plastic, of doorknobs and cables and corks, of spools and balloons and unusable spoons and rusty old shovels and forks. It's quite an unusual dragon. It rolls on irregular wheels. It clatters and creaks and it rattles and squeaks. And when it tips over, it squeals. I've tried to control its manoeuvres. It Fails to obey my commands. It bumps into walls till it totters and falls. I made it myself with my hands. Thank you. Hit like, hit subscribe, the bell for notifications, and share it with others.